Research has shown that the preschool years are a vital time for children to acquire the language skills necessary to succeed in school. In 1965, as part of the “war on poverty” in the United States, the Head Start program was started to help preschool children from low-income families improve their readiness for school. However, by the time a child starts the Head Start program, it may be too late for these children to catch up with children from higher income families. In a landmark study, Hart and Risley1 studied 42 children from diverse socioeconomic and racial backgrounds beginning when they were 7 to 9 months of age until they were 3 years old to better understand how children develop language skills.


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