How poverty impacts brain and language development: Understanding the vocabulary gap

在美国，超过3100万儿童（42%）来自低社会经济地位（SES）家庭。平均而言，这些孩子的词汇量明显小于中等社会经济地位的同龄人。这种词汇差距出现在发展的早期，在上学期间增加，并具有终身的学术和经济影响。虽然研究已经确定了低SES幼儿词汇量较低的一些可能原因，但尚不清楚赤字如何或为什么在上学期间继续增加。 本研究将探讨SES在语义知识、阅读能力和工作记忆方面的差异如何导致学龄儿童在行为和大脑水平上的单词学习缺陷。该研究的结果将有助于确定干预方向，以提高这一高危人群在学习上取得成功的可能性。该项目将使用一种相对较新的分析技术，时间频率分析，研究学龄儿童（8-15岁）学习新单词时电生理过程的变化。将研究这些神经元反应与儿童的单词学习能力、家庭背景（母亲的教育水平和需求-收入比）和认知能力（阅读能力、词汇量和工作记忆）的关系。通过这种方式，拟议的工作将澄清SES影响儿童在学龄期间的单词学习的行为和神经过程的机制。

In the US, over 31 million children (42%) are from low socioeconomic status (SES) homes. On average these children have significantly smaller vocabularies than their middle SES peers. This vocabulary gap appears early in development, increases during the school years and has life-long academic and economic implications. Although research has identified some possible reasons for lower vocabulary in low SES toddlers, it is not clear how or why the deficit continues to increase during the school years. The present project will study how well-documented SES differences in semantic knowledge, reading abilities and working memory may contribute to word learning deficits at the behavioral and brain levels in school-aged children. The outcomes of this research will help to identify directions for intervention to increase the likelihood of academic success within this at-risk population.This project will use a relatively new analysis technique, Time Frequency Analysis, to study changes in electrophysiological processes of school-aged children (8-15 years) as they learn new words. These neuronal responses will be studied in relation to children's word learning abilities, family background (mother's level of education and needs-to-income ratio) and cognitive abilities (reading abilities, vocabulary and working memory). In this way, the proposed work will clarify the mechanisms by which SES influences the behavioral and neural processes contributing to children's word learning during the school years.