Language Acquisition Challenges for Preschoolers Residing in Low-SES Households: Implications for Speech-language Pathologists and Developmental Researchers

Abstract

Young children who reside in low-socioeconomic households are at considerable risk for delays in their rate of language acquisition. Large numbers of these children, whose cultural and linguistic systems differ from mainstream culture and the versions of American English associated with prestige, evidence not just language variations when contrasted with their middle-SES peers, but lifelong disparities in their neurocognitive and language outcomes. Identification and assessment issues with this unique, underserved, population may be especially challenging for speech-language pathologists.