Barbarin calls for doing more than closing 'the word gap'
A 1995 study by child psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley at the University of Kansas, found that children of professionals hear an estimated 45 million words prior to the age of 4, compared to children on welfare who may hear no more than 13 million words during early childhood. Although the study has been criticized for its simplistic methodology, the 'word gap' has given rise to policy initiatives and political support that aim to reduce it.
However, faculty associate Oscar Barbarin argues that this emphasis is too narrow in the wider agenda of reducing the gap in child development between rich and poor families. While alleviating the word gap seems like an easy solution, it does little to address the dearth of material resources available to low income families, and the discrimination faced by poor and racial minority groups. Although Dr. Barbarin agrees that enhancing vocabulary for all children is important, he stresses that the issue must be analyzed within structural and contextual realities.