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经济地位的同龄人。这种词汇差距出现在发育早期，在上学期间增加，并对学术和经济产生终身影响。尽管研究已经确定了低社会经济地位幼儿词汇量较低的一些可能原因，但尚不清楚这种赤字是如何或为什么在上学期间继续增加的。目前的项目将研究有充分证据的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。这项研究的结果将有助于确定干预方向，以增加这一高危人群学业成功的可能性。本项目将使用一种相对较新的分析技术——时频分析，来研究学龄儿童（8-15岁）学习新单词时电生理过程的变化。这些神经元反应将与儿童的词汇学习能力、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）有关。通过这种方式，提出的工作将阐明社会经济地位影响有助于儿童在上学期间学习单词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.