Latino children's language skills are lagging by age 2, study says

By Emma Brown 

Washington Post link here  

Publish on April 2nd, 2015

This article follows a recent study by the University of California at Berkley that shows how prekindergarten could be too late of a start when thinking about closing the gap between Latino and white students academically. The research is directed at parents and educators and calls for more efforts to be done when preparing toddlers for schooling. The researchers visited the children's homes twice: once at nine months old and again in toddler hood. The findings were that 80% of Mexican-American toddlers grew more slowly than white toddlers and averaged about 3-4 months behind their white peers. 

For me, this article targeted a couple of things. First was the identity aspect and race lenses that contribute to the study and the impact that both seem to have on the research and its findings. The second was the push to get parents more resources to prepare young children for school readiness and to help close the gap between not only race but relationship between parents and educators, helping to balance the responsibility in student learning. 

The research was also presented in the Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences