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The education word gap emerges by 18 months: findings from an Australian prospective study

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dc.contributor.authorBrushe, M.E.
dc.contributor.authorLynch, J.
dc.contributor.authorReilly, S.
dc.contributor.authorMelhuish, E.
dc.contributor.authorMittinty, M.N.
dc.contributor.authorBrinkman, S.A.
dc.date.issued2021
dc.descriptionData source: Supplementary Information, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-021-02712-1
dc.description.abstractBackground The idea of the '30 million word gap' suggests families from more socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds engage in more verbal interactions with their child than disadvantaged families. Initial findings from the Language in Little Ones (LiLO) study up to 12 months showed no word gap between maternal education groups. Methods Families with either high or low maternal education were purposively recruited into a five-year prospective study. We report results from the first three waves of LiLO when children were 6, 12 and 18 months old. Day-long audio recordings, obtained using the Language Environment Analysis software, provided counts of adult words spoken to the child, child vocalizations and conversational turns.<h4>Results</h4>By the time children were 18 months old all three measures of talk were 0.5 to 0.7 SD higher among families with more education, but with large variation within education groups. Changes in talk from 6 to 18 months highlighted that families from low educated backgrounds were decreasing the amount they spoke to their children (- 4219.54, 95% CI -6054.13, - 2384.95), compared to families from high educated backgrounds who remained relatively stable across this age period (- 369.13, 95% CI - 2344.57, 1606.30). Conclusions The socioeconomic word gap emerges between 12 and 18 months of age. Interventions to enhance maternal communication, child vocalisations and vocabulary development should begin prior to 18 months.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityMary E. Brushe, John Lynch, Sheena Reilly, Edward Melhuish, Murthy N. Mittinty and Sally A. Brinkman
dc.identifier.citationBMC Pediatrics, 2021; 21(1):247-1-247-9
dc.identifier.doi10.1186/s12887-021-02712-1
dc.identifier.issn1471-2431
dc.identifier.issn1471-2431
dc.identifier.orcidBrushe, M.E. [0000-0001-8025-8535]
dc.identifier.orcidLynch, J. [0000-0003-2781-7902]
dc.identifier.orcidMittinty, M.N. [0000-0001-8778-9793]
dc.identifier.orcidBrinkman, S.A. [0000-0001-7538-4844]
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2440/133762
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherBioMed Central
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1121830
dc.rights© The Author(s). 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-021-02712-1
dc.subjectEarly childhood development
dc.subjectInequality
dc.subjectLanguage
dc.subjectParent talk
dc.subjectWord gap
dc.subject.meshHumans
dc.subject.meshProspective Studies
dc.subject.meshLanguage
dc.subject.meshLanguage Development
dc.subject.meshVocabulary
dc.subject.meshAdult
dc.subject.meshChild
dc.subject.meshInfant
dc.subject.meshAustralia
dc.titleThe education word gap emerges by 18 months: findings from an Australian prospective study
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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