A Child Development Approach to Language in the Preschool Disadvantaged Child

Abstract

The nature and extent of language deficit among the children of the disadvantaged is by now a well-known fact, increasingly documented and specified by ongoing research (Bernstein, 1960; Cohn, 1959; Deutsch, 1967; John, 1963; Raph, 1965). Though some have pointed out that the language of the inner city slums has it own vocabulary and richness (Riessman, 1962), it seems clear that children of this population are often less articulate than their more privileged peers and less able to use language effectively as a tool of thought, learning, and communication. Further, their deficits are noticeable at very young ages and tend to persist or become more apparent as the children move through the elementary grades. There are a variety of ways in which the deficits of these children can be conceptualized, and the preschool programs based on such conceptualizations are correspondingly varied. The point of view represented in this paper sets language and language deficit into the context of the child's more general psychological development. In essence, this viewpoint considers the growth of language to be part of the development of human communication on the one hand and part of conceptual development on the other. Further, this viewpoint considers the purposes of preschool education to be developmental in the broadest sense. In this context, the advancement of measurable language skills is an important goal for disadvantaged children, but not the only goal nor, in all instances, the primary one. The psychoeducational philosophy represented in this paper is not new. The authors wish to thank the supervisors, teachers, and staff members of Bank Street College of Education who are working with disadvantaged children and who gave us the benefit of their experience. Special thanks are due to Elizabeth Gilkeson, supervisor of the Bank Street Children's Programs; Ilse Mattick, who has been working with preschool children from disadvantaged multiproblem families in Boston; Priscilla Pemberton, Ruby Ramsey, Mildred Barnett, Jane Catchen, the late Renee Reens, Blanche Saia, Pamela Chamberlin, and other staff members of the Early Childhood Center and the Polly Miller Day Care Center-programs operated and supervised by Bank Street College.