Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children: Paul H Brookes Publishing: Baltimore; 1995

08/01/2025 | PAXIS Institute |

This . . . work establishes a scientifically substantiated link between children’s early family experience and their later intellectual growth—a link that exists regardless of a child’s race.
This . . . story describes the authors’ years of research as they search for the roots of intellectual disparity. Hart and Risley examined the daily lives of 1- and 2-yr-old children in typical American families. They found staggering contrasts at the extremes of advantage—and within the middle class—in the amount of interaction between parents and children. These differences in the amount of early family experience translate into striking disparities in the children’s later vocabulary growth rate, vocabulary use, and IQ test scores.

Citation: Hart B, Risley TR. Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children: Paul H Brookes Publishing: Baltimore; 1995.

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