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Cited by 556Language Development and DisordersHearing Impairment and CommunicationChild and Animal Learning Development

Differences in Early Gesture Explain SES Disparities in Child Vocabulary Size at School Entry

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Rowe, Meredith L., Goldin-Meadow, Susan·2009·Science
DOI 10.1126/science.1167025PMC PMC2692106
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Abstract

Children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) families, on average, arrive at school with smaller vocabularies than children from high-SES families. In an effort to identify precursors to, and possible remedies for, this inequality, we videotaped 50 children from families with a range of different SES interacting with parents at 14 months and assessed their vocabulary skills at 54 months. We found that children from high-SES families frequently used gesture to communicate at 14 months, a relation that was explained by parent gesture use (with speech controlled). In turn, the fact that children from high-SES families have large vocabularies at 54 months was explained by children's gesture use at 14 months. Thus, differences in early gesture help to explain the disparities in vocabulary that children bring with them to school.

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Authors
Rowe, M. L., & Goldin-Meadow, S.
Affiliations
  • University of Chicago (US)
  • Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Corresponding author
Rowe, Meredith L.
ORCID
Rowe, Meredith L.
Venue
Science
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Published
2009-02-13
Volume
323
Issue
5916
Pages
951-953
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
DOI
10.1126/science.1167025
PMC
PMC2692106
OpenAlex
W2171849228
Cited by
556
References
7
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 61 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 92 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 39 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 19
FWCI
38.65
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P01HD040605, K99HD055522, P01 HD406-05)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Hearing Impairment and Communication
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
Keywords
gesture use, socioeconomic disparities, school entry, parent-child interaction, early communication, vocabulary development, language inequality, preschool children
MeSH terms
Child, Preschool, Female, Gestures, Humans, Infant, Male, Parent-Child Relations, Social Class, Videotape Recording, Vocabulary

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