Outcomes: Research

• Research on the interaction¹ between parent and child reveals that the average child from a middle class home will have heard 44 million “utterances” by the age of four. Those from the least well-off backgrounds will have heard 12 million words.
• There is a significant correlation² between talking and later achievement.
• The number of negative words³ a child hears (prohibitions and words of disapproval) were very high among poor children (75,000 encouragements and 200,000 discouragements), in contrast to what the average child of a professional hears ( about 500,000 words of encouragements and 80,000 words of discouragement. This is a marker for lower self-esteem among poor children.
• The incidence of mental health problems⁴ is higher among impoverished families than in middle class families, which increases the amount of physical and emotional abuse-5, especially for children when they mature.
• In 2006 only 53% of all children starting kindergarten⁵ in Walker County could name 8 alphabet letters in less than 1 minute.

1. Robin Alexander, Primary Review Reports, December, 2007
2. Howe and Mercer, Primary Review Reports, December, 2007
3. Hart and Risely, 2003 research update on “Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children”
4. Hudson, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 2005
5. Windom, Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005
6. Windom, Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005

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