Abstract
Children's early language environments are critical for their cognitive development,
school readiness, and ultimate educational attainment. Significant disparities exist
in these environments, with profound and lasting impacts upon children's ultimate
outcomes. Children from backgrounds of low socioeconomic status experience diminished
language inputs and enter school at a disadvantage, with disparities persisting throughout
their educational careers. Parents are positioned as powerful agents of change in
their children's lives, however, and evidence indicates that parent-directed intervention
is effective in improving child outcomes. This article explores the efficacy of parent-directed
interventions and their potential applicability to the wider educational achievement
gap seen in typically developing populations of low socioeconomic status and then
describes efforts to develop such interventions with the Thirty Million Words Project
and Project ASPIRE (Achieving Superior Parental Involvement for Rehabilitative Excellence)
curricula.
Keywords
Low socioeconomic status - disparities - early language - intervention - parent implemented