COLUMBUS – Young children whose parents read them five books a day enter kindergarten having heard about 1.4 million more words than kids who were never read to, according to new study by early childhood education researchers at Ohio State.
The so-called “million word gap” could be one factor in explaining differences in vocabulary and reading development among young children, said Jessica Logan, lead author of the study and assistant professor of educational studies at OSU.
“Kids who hear more vocabulary words are going to be better prepared to see those words in print when they enter school. They are likely to pick up reading skills more quickly and easily,” said Logan, a member of the university’s Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy.
Even children who are read only one book a day will hear about 290,000 more words by age five than those who don’t regularly read books with a parent or caregiver.
How many words a child would hear by the time they are 5:
Never read to (4,662 words)
1-2 times/week (63,570)
3-5 times (169,520 words)
Daily (296,660)
5 books/day (1.483 million)
-Source: OSU Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy.
The research tends to contradict a controversial 1992 study that suggested that children growing up in poverty hear about 30 million fewer words in conversation by age three than those from more privileged backgrounds. Other studies since then suggest this “30 million word gap” may be much smaller or even non-existent, Logan said
The researchers collaborated with the Columbus Metropolitan Library, which identified the 100 most circulated books targeting infants to preschoolers. Logan and her colleagues randomly selected 30 books from both lists and counted how many words were in each book. They found that board books for infants and toddlers contained an average of 140 words, while picture books aimed at preschoolers contained an average of 228 words.
The study appears online in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and will be published in a future print edition.