Word: childrened
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Previous studies have shown that wealthier, educated parents talk to their young children more, using more complex vocabulary and syntax, than parents of lesser means. And these differences may help explain why richer kids start school with richer vocabularies. But what goes on before children can talk, during that phase - familiar to any parent - when communication takes the form of pointing, waving, grabbing and other kinds of baby sign language? Do well-off parents also gesture more to their kids...
...researchers found that at 14 months of age, babies already showed a wide range of "speaking" ability through gestures, and that those differences were correlated with their socioeconomic background and how frequently their parents used gestures to communicate. High-income, better-educated parents gestured more frequently to their children to convey meaning and new concepts, and in turn, their kids gestured more to them. When researchers tested the same children at 54 months of age, those early gesturers turned out to have better vocabulary ability than other students. (See the top 10 children's books...
...months, you can't see a difference with their speech, but you can already see a difference with their gestures," says Goldin-Meadow, a leading expert on gesture. "And children's gestures can be traced back to parents' gestures...
Goldin-Meadow and Rowe's study involved children from 50 Chicago-area families of various ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Annual incomes ranged from less than $15,000 to more than $100,000, and parents' educational level ranged from high school dropout to advanced degree. The researchers videotaped each child at 14 months with his or her primary caregiver (the mother, in 49 out of 50 kids) for 90 minutes while the pair engaged in everyday activities. Those tapes were then transcribed - all speech and gestures seen during the 90 minutes were noted and recorded in code. (See pictures...
...example, pointing at a doll 10 times would count as only one gesture, but pointing at a doll and then a bed might count as two. During the 90-minute session, 14-month-olds from well-off families used an average of 24 meaningfully different gestures, researchers found, while children from lower-income families used an average of just...