Kids' word-grasp level grows with family $$.

Byline: Motko Rich

Nearly two decades ago, a landmark study found that by age 3, the children of wealthier professionals have heard words millions more times than those of less-educated parents, giving them a distinct advantage in school and suggesting the need for increased investment in prekindergarten programs.

Now a follow-up study has found a language gap as early as 18 months, heightening the policy debate.

The new research by Anne Fernald, a psychologist at Stanford University, which was published in Developmental Science earlier this year, showed that at 18 months children from wealthier homes could identify pictures of simple words they knew -- "dog'' or "ball'' -- much faster than children from low-income families. By age 2, the study found, affluent children had learned 30 percent more words in the intervening months than the children from low-income homes.

The new findings, although based on a small sample size, reinforced the earlier research showing that, because professional parents speak so much more to their children, their children hear 30 million more words by the time they are 3 than children from low-income households, early literacy experts, preschool directors and pediatricians said.

In the new study, the children of affluent households came from communities where the median income was $69,000; the low-income children came from communities with a median income of $23,900.

Since oral language and vocabulary are so connected to reading comprehension, the most disadvantaged children face increased challenges once they enter school and start learning to read.

"That gap just gets bigger and bigger,'' said Kris Perry, executive director of the First Five Years Fund, an advocate of early education for low-income children.

In the latest data available from the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, 28 percent of all 4-year-olds in the United States were enrolled in state-financed preschool in the 2010-11 school year, and just 4 percent of 3-year-olds. The National Governors Association, in a report this month calling...