<p>Children of professionals were, on average, exposed to approximately 1,500 more words hourly than children growing up in poverty. This resulted in a gap of more than 32 million words by the time the children reached the age of 4.</p>
<p>I have witnessed this phenomenon every day as I travel on the subway and the bus. In the subway, I see very young, seemingly unmarried minority teenage mothers with babies or toddlers in their strollers. The mothers have an Ipod in their ear, and stare into space as they listen and bob their head to the beat. The toddler sits in the stroller, with a vacant stare into space, almost lifeless. There is no interaction between the mother and child, not verbal or physical. In contrast, when Im on the bus running errands in my affluent neighborhood, white mothers and fathers engage their children in exactly the way described in the article. They talk to them, explain to them, and equally important, touch them and hug them so that there is also physical contact. I have had the same thoughts about this contrast for years, and as a teacher, know full well the devastating impact this disparity has on cognitive and intellectual development.</p>
<p>At the same time, Im frustrated because I will be blamed for being a failing teacher when these children will score low on their standardized tests and will read below grade level. No merit pay, punitive evaluation system, purge of deadwood veteran teachers to be replaced by young Teach for America teachers, or any other so-called accountability measure can compensate for the lack of cognitive and intellectual development during the formative years prior to beginning formal schooling. - anonymous</p>
<p>Yes, our first pediatrician said my poor kids had to speak well at a young age “in self defense,” because I undoubtably spoke to them so much. I’m sure most of us in CC did the same thing. ;)</p>
<p>Is the answer high quality daycare for young kids where words are spoken? Words are spoken on a TV too, which Sone kids are way over-exposed to. How does TV count in the word count game? My kids and I regularly watched Sesame Street and reading rainbow.</p>
<p>Yes, it would be one way of addressing the problem, and I agree that it is a problem. I would be in favor of starting public education (not compulsory, but by choice) at age two and a half. Even if the little ones could be in a stimulating setting for three or four hours a day- like half-day kindergartens used to be- it would go a long way in preparing the kids for school, both socially and academically.</p>
<p>Actually, I’m not convinced school is the ideal setting for the very young. Play groups and good day care, where the staff is well paid and highly qualified and there are very low child to adult ratios seem key. Sadly, I don’t see this as happening in our community or the US any time soon.</p>
<p>* I see very young, seemingly unmarried minority teenage mothers with babies or toddlers in their strollers. *</p>
<p>FYI, I looked 14 when I had my first, I was 24. Now I apparently look 18 years younger according to some even though I haven’t had " work" and rarely wear makeup.
So theres that.
I did interact with her more than the mothers you’ve described do, but then I was probably in a much better situation. The pregnancy was planned & I was married + I had a car!
Its pretty hard to take care of someone else if you don’t feel cared for yourself.</p>
<p>Our public school district offers a day-care for young children, and we also have a parent participation pre-school in the community that’s very inexpensive, which my son (and I ) attended when he was 2 1/2 until Kindergarten. It was wonderful.
My son also had access to public school speech therapy, for free, when he was only three, in a separate classroom for preschoolers. He would go and work with the district speech therapist for 45 minutes twice a week- mostly playing games while working on his sounds.</p>
<p>There is free public pre-school and speech therapy for youngsters identified as “special needs” in our state. I have a friend in NM, whose S got speech therapy free from when he was about. Our S didn’t qualify for free speech therapy until referred at age 7-8 or so. He did get free speech therapy provided compliments of the elks club when he was in preschool.</p>
<p>Interesting about free preschool for special needs kids in some states but not others.</p>
<p>Our DD attended free public preschool from age 3 here in nj.
Included speech therapy . I will always value those two years that gave her what she needed.</p>
<p>I have lamented about this for years - and where I see it, it is not just the demographic described in the article. When I do the grocery shopping, I see so many mothers, across several levels, yakking on their cells phones while their young children sit in the cart totally disengaged. And since the mothers are speaking so loudly on the phones, it can be determined that these are just social calls - no emergency or any event that could not have waited until another time. If they are not speaking on the phone, they are texting or emailing on the phone.</p>
<p>I loved grocery shopping when my kids were young as we would talk about so many things that we were seeing at the time. They didn’t get cranky or have meltdowns because I would keep them engaged and keep it interesting at their level. But then we did this wherever we went, not just the grocery store. Everything at that age is a learning experience for young children. It seems that today that darn cell phone has become more important than the time they spend communicating with the children.</p>
<p>DartDad, EVERYONE withdraws into their shell on public transportation. Whenever I ride the subway in New York, for instance, it always seems to me that everyone (affluent or not) is miserable and despondent. I don’t think the experiences of riding public transportation and errand-running in the suburbs are apples to apples.</p>
<p>Having said that, I do see your point and recognize that it’s a problem for the kids growing up in disadvantaged circumstances.</p>
<p>I believe all public school districts must provide services to special needs children from age 3-21, or until they graduate high school. D was in First Steps from birth to age 3, and I think most (all?) states have a similar program.</p>
<p>DartDad, I take your point, BUT–and that’s a big BUT-- I don’t think race has anything to do with it. </p>
<p>Here in Maine, the whitest state in the nation, where plenty of white people are poor, and you see middle-aged white people working fast food jobs, you’ll see the same thing with young white mothers. (Well, not on the subway, because we don’t have one, and not on public transportation, because there is virtually none.)</p>
I agree. I fully acknowledge that I come from a long line of white trash and I can tell you that I had and have relatives who are every bit as disengaged as the OP’s teenaged mom.</p>
<p>After reading Sally’s post(10) and Consolation’s post(12) I went back to re-read the Op.
Sally says: “DartDad, EVERYONE withdraws into their shell on public transportation” but we know that isn’t true, because Dartdad tells us about interaction on buses.</p>
<p>Clearly, the Op isn’t wrong. Why? Because he doesn’t make conclusions about race, he only reported to us what he saw. It may be the Op saw what is typical- or maybe not, but the Op does not judge.</p>
<p>2nd what Consolation said. It’s just as likely that you don’t see white, middle class mothers doing this because they’re in their private transportation (cars) with their kids with iPods in the back seat doing the same thing. Did you see the other thread about the rise in children playing with iPads and people using iPads as babysitters? I doubt very much that those teenage minority mothers are giving their kids iPads as babysitters. </p>
<p>Yes, word deficit is a problem. Very much so. But I’m thinking that the word deficit is just a symptom of something else. These children also often lack proper nutrition, access to books, etc. I think it’s dangerous to assume causation because I think then we ignore bigger problems that lead up to that deficit.</p>
<p>I see the same thing happening across all racial and economic lines as parents are hooked into smart devices all the time- picking kids up from school, waiting for doctor or a restaurant table, sitting on the sidelines at soccer games. Very sad to see this lack of human engagement.</p>
<p>younghoss, I agree that DartDad is just reporting what he sees where he lives. But if I were a person of color reading that, I would want to know that people realize that it is not confined to minorities. There are plenty of minority parents on CC, and I’m quite sure their children did not suffer from word deficit. I have several friend who are experienced social workers here, who have worked for decades with families with very young, poor mothers. Sometimes generations of the same family. They waged a battle that included trying to convince the 16 yr olds not to put CocaCola in the baby’s bottle, not to prop the baby with the bottle in front of the TV, etc.</p>
<p>I actually think this is going to reveal itself in many negative ways as the generation of kids with smart-phone/social-media-addicted parents grows up. See also the thread running on avoiding tablets for kids under age 2.</p>
<p>If I were a person of color and I read what Dartdad reported he saw, but I thought I’d have to explain his personal experience wasn’t 100% representative of all Americans, then I would consider myself racially biased. I would be assuming others were too, hence my feeling it was important to explain further. If I felt that way, I’d be reading something into his post that just wasn’t there, and, I’d be assuming others were mis-reading his post too.
He saw what he saw, and didn’t even hint he felt it was representative of all whites or of all minorities. Nothing about his post indicated it was intended as a representation of all Americans, so why do some feel the need to say it isn’t? I just don’t agree it’s important for others to express contrary experiences as a way to show his experiences aren’t fully representative, since he didn’t claim they were representative.</p>
<p>If I start a thread about 3 wonderful Chevy trucks(for example) I have owned, someone else posting they had a great Toyota truck does not alter that I’ve had 3 great Chevys, nor does my comment about Chevys I have owned reflect in any way about other peoples’ Toyotas.
But I realize too, it is the nature of forums like this for a thread to go a bit off the tangent, just as real conversation would.</p>
