How to Talk to Your Child

According to the New York Times and other American news outlets, the "Providence Talks" programme will be based on research carried out by two psychologists from the University of Kansas, Betty Hart (who died last year) and Todd R Risley, who in 1995 published their findings in a book called Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. The results of these studies were striking. After six years of data collection and analysis, they established that while "professional class" children hear on average 2,153 words per hour from their parents, children whose parents were on welfare – the "Precariat", as the BBC might have described them – hear just 616 (television didn't count; it was found to have an adverse effect).

Thus, while the wealthier child will be treated to a near-constant stream of cooing commentary, poorer parents tend to limit their interactions with their babies to commands such as "Put away your toy!" and "Don't eat that!" This meant that by his third birthday, the poorest child will have heard around 30 million fewer words than his middle class counterpart.

Coming from a background where talking and reading was a vital part of each day as a child, I find the idea intriguing. However, I think "If everyone talked to their young children the same amount, "there would be no racial or socioeconomic gap at all"." is just naïve.