Trying to Close a Knowledge Gap, Word by Word

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/us/trying-to-close-a-knowledge-gap-word-by-word.html?_r=0

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Amid a political push for government-funded preschool for 4-year-olds, a growing number of experts fear that such programs actually start too late for the children most at risk. That is why Deisy Ixcuna-González, the 16-month-old daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, is wearing a tiny recorder that captures every word she hears and utters inside her family’s cramped apartment one day a week.

Recent research shows that brain development is buoyed by continuous interaction with parents and caregivers from birth, and that even before age 2, the children of the wealthy know more words than do those of the poor. So the recorder acts as a tool for instructing Deisy’s parents on how to turn even a visit to the kitchen into a language lesson. It is part of an ambitious campaign, known as Providence Talks, that is aimed at the city’s poorest residents and intended to reduce the knowledge gap long before school starts. It is among a number of such efforts being undertaken throughout the country.

“When she grabs your hand and brings you to the refrigerator and points to the cabinet, that is an opportunity for you to say, ‘Deisy, are you hungry? You want cereal? Let’s go look for the cereal,’ ” Stephanie Taveras, a Providence Talks home visitor who also works with Early Head Start, told Deisy’s mother in Spanish. “You do the responding for her now until she has the vocabulary, and she will be hearing you.”

Educators say that many parents, especially among the poor and immigrants, do not know that talking, as well as reading, singing and playing with their young children, is important. “I’ve had young moms say, ‘I didn’t know I was supposed to talk to my baby until they could say words and talk to me,’ ” said Susan Landry, director of the Children’s Learning Institute at the University of Texas in Houston, which has developed a home visiting program similar to the one here in Providence.

...

“Taking fifteen minutes a day to communicate with them while you’re preparing dinner or reading to them at bedtime are the most valuable minutes for developing their vocabulary skills and creating a strong foundation for their academic success,” Ms. Bermudo tells viewers.

Ms. O’Leary said Too Small to Fail would experiment with a variety of media messages in different cities. Starting later this spring, slogans like “Words bring your child’s mind to life,” “Talking is teaching” and “Feed me words” will appear on billboards, grocery carts and buses in low-income neighborhoods in Tulsa, Okla. The goal, Ms. O’Leary said, is to emulate the success of other public information campaigns such as those intended to reduce crib deaths by persuading parents to put their babies to sleep on their backs.

[lostinblue 1,989]

It goes hand in hand with having a father and mother as a family unit in a house hold. .. 2 parents reading and talking to the child. Double the interaction. Then again their are too many people that only read the sports page and watch the soaps.. They have not a clue what is going on in the world. The children will not have a clue either. There is a great deal of correlation as to why families have generations of family members working in the same professions. IE Doctors or lawyers. A friend of mine had a father who was a lawyer. They talked law at the dinner table every night, At an early age his family was exposed to lets say "lawyers language" or law speak. Two of the children are today lawyers.

[Danno 1,228]

I don't mind when people who believe in this stuff to reach in their pocket and pay for it but they no doubt will want everyone to pay for such silliness.

You would think the resounding failure of Head Start would put the breaks on these things but ..... I doubt it.

Any idea which promises to "close the gap" between this group or that is all that is needed to get the funding.

Billions have been spent and what do we have to show for it?

I wonder if our Grand parents had the energy to read 15 minutes a day to each child.

I'm a little shocked these families which are deemed defective are not insulted with all this..