Low Income Home Parenting Effects On Children Essay

A child 's acquisition of skills in early childhood is significantly impeded by a low-income socioeconomic environment in which a child is raised in and more specifically the parenting that a child in a low-income home receives. Parents in poverty stricken homes are less likely to provide supplemental education, such as reading to their children or helping with homework, which has a lasting effect on the child. In "Whatever It Takes" Paul Tough describes two studies that highlighted this issue. Betty Hart and Todd Risley conducted a study which concluded that by the age of 3 children in welfare homes have heard 10 million words as compared to their average-income counterpart who have heard 30 million (Tough 42). They also found that children in low-income homes hear approximately 200,000 discouragements – "prohibitions and words of disapproval" – as compared to children in average income households who hear around 80,000 (Tough 42). These differences have a negative impact on a child 's IQ later in life and can cause a setback in their learning.
The combination of few discouragements and the abundance of words that children in average income households are introduced to have a lasting impact on the child. When that child enters school they are already equipped with a more extensive and rich …show more content…
Research illustrates the several ways in which parenting practices in low-income homes can cause a setback in a child 's acquisition of skills. They also demonstrate how low socioeconomic status can limit the experiences that a child has during their primitive years. Overall there is a distinct difference between the cognitive abilities of low-income children versus average income children, whether it be caused by parenting or simply the disadvantages of low socioeconomic status, or a combination of both, these children are suffering from their place on a tiered society placed them