Question

An important study of poverty and language development found that four-year-old children raised by families on welfare had been exposed to __________ words spoken than similar children growing up in more affluent families.

Answer 1

Complete Question:

An important study of poverty and language development found that four-year-old children raised by families on welfare had been exposed to ________ words than similar children growing up in more affluent families.

A. 3 million fewer.

B. 8 million fewer.

C. 1 million more.

D. 13 million fewer.

Answer:

D. 13 million fewer.

Explanation:

An important study of poverty and language development found that four-year-old children raised by families on welfare had been exposed to 13 million fewer words spoken than similar children growing up in more affluent families.

This study was a research based study by two (2) psychologists, namely Betty Hart and Todd Risley. It was known as the 30 million word gap.

They stated it in an article titled "The Early Catastrophe: The 30 million word gap by age 3" where they studied 42 Midwestern families in the United States of America. They classified these families into three (3) categories with respect to social economic class;

1. High (affluent).

2. Middle or low (working class).

3. Welfare.

In the research they discovered that an average child from a poor (welfare) family would be exposed to 13 million (616 words per hour) fewer words in four (4) years than similar children growing up in more affluent families who would only have 45 million words (2,153 words per hour).

Also, note that the process involved Betty and Todd recording words for an hour, once in a month for a period of 2½ years (60 months) in various families.