Nursery 

The 30 Million Word Gap

Research: The Early Catastrophe: 30 million word gap by age 3– Betty Hart and Todd Risley.

Main findings:

Children (up to the age of 4) from lower socio-economic backgrounds start out at a learning disadvantage because they hear fewer words than higher socioeconomic backgrounds – a 30 million word disadvantage.

Book – Meaningful Differences of Young American Children.

Implementation at KH –

• Structured approach to curriculum teaching in the Early Years.
• Themes taught weekly or fortnightly in EY to broaden the children’s exposure to vocabulary.
• Themes from Year 1 upwards taught over 2 or 3 weeks to broaden vocabulary exposure.
• Adult led / child initiated time ratio is more 70/30 to recreate a language driven curriculum.
• Started admitting 2 year olds to increase exposure to effective vocabulary.
• Accepted children into Nursery for up to 35 hours a week – 8:30 – 3:30.

Impact –

• Children make accelerated progress from their starting points, during their time with us.