The Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Vocabulary Development

The goal of many primary school teachers is to teach their students to become successful readers. It is the foundation upon which all future learning is based, in fact the federal government mandates primary grade teachers to accomplish this goal through the no child left behind legislation. No child left behind requires that all children read on grade level by third grade. Aside of the legislation mostly all primary grade teachers aspire to teach all children to read. In dealing with the elementary level of education primary school teachers are often nurturing and caring individuals who want the best for their students. Even with the support of the teachers there is usually a portion of the student’s population that has a difficult time to become readers. The reason for this is within the gender, race, and socioeconomic status of the learner.
Differences, growth rates and vocabulary manifest themselves early in a child’s life and seem most closely associated with socioeconomic status. For instance studies show that three year old children of professional parents have larger vocabularies than children of parents on welfare. Children in professional homes hear 382 words an hour while children raised in welfare homes hear an average of 167 words an hour. In one month the difference in words heard is 1,100 for professional homes and 500 to welfare homes. A major fact in society today is the school failure of disadvantage children.
Poor children confront widespread inequalities. Compared with their economically advantaged counterparts they are exposed to more family turmoil, violence, separation from their families, instability, and chaotic households. Poor children experience less social support, and their parents are less responsive and more authoritarian. Low income children are read to relatively watch more TV, and have less access to books and computers. Low income parents are also less involved in their children’s school activities. The air and water poor children consume are more polluted. The homes of poor children are more crowded, noisier, and of lower quality. All of these setbacks are reasons for slower vocabulary development.
Family socioeconomic status is a powerful predictor of many aspects of child development. Socioeconomic status and child development are complicated variables and because many factors that influence child development covers with socioeconomic status. The relation in focus is that between socioeconomic status and early vocabulary development, is well established that children from lower socioeconomic status build their vocabulary slower than children from higher socioeconomic status.

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