Encouragements Vs Discouragements

Like many others this week, I was struck by the Hart and Risley (2003) study that found vast differences in the language acquisition of children from wealthy families and those from families on welfare. The study described an enormous gap—30 million words at age 3.

As surprised as I was by Hart and Risley’s (2003) 30 million word gap, I was more impacted by what they described next: the fact that wealthy children received on average six encouragements to every discouragement, while children on welfare got twice as many discouragements as encouragements.

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[Sam: How does Le Beaumont's English and Putonghua Programs differ from centres taking a more structured and traditional approach? Beaumont kids receive on average six encouragements to every discouragement. The traditional approach does not tolerate any mistake. Children only get discouragements. Find out more at the Parenting Seminar on coming Saturday morning.]