Edutopia – Michelle Blanchet
“In the past few decades, a range of public awareness campaigns have encouraged parents to speak more with their children. “Sing, Talk, And Read (STAR)” to your young child, cheerleads one, and “Talk With Me Baby,” begs another. Almost everyone agrees: It’s good for children to hear parents and caregivers talking. This consensus didn’t emerge in a vacuum. The public service campaigns are the legacy of a well-known study called Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children—more commonly known as the “30 Million Word Gap” study—which concluded that the first three years of a child’s life are critical to advancing their language development and can have long-term impacts on their success in school and in life.” (more)