1

Running head: The Effects of Poverty on Children’s Ability to Communicate

The Effects of Poverty on Children’s Ability to Communicate

Fabiola Nunez
Pacific Oaks College
Communication for Empowerment
HD 341
Summer 2017
Dr. Getman
 2
The Effects of Poverty on Children’s Ability to Communicate

Poverty is defined as being extremely poor. According to the World Bank nearly 800

million people are living in poverty. Living in Poverty has been shown to have negative

influences on developing children. Children living in poverty have decrease language and

cognitive developments. Being a future educators we need to be aware of how we can bridge the

gap poverty has on the education and the communication of children.

Children living in poverty can be left behind in the educational system. They are

sometimes forgotten by either teacher or parents. Parents who live in poverty can be found to

focus their time and energies into other activities, like searching for jobs, or a place to live or

homes. Their main concern is not the education of their children. They do not have the time and

energy to sit with their children and read them stories or check their homework. Personally I was

raised by a single mother who worked three jobs just to keep a roof over our heads and food on

the table. Working three jobs did not leave her any time to sit with me and check my homework

every night. She did not attend school meetings or conferences, she did not meet my teachers or

my classrooms. She was worried about keeping her kids off the street and getting them to school

with a belly full of food. According to research, this parental stress can decrease vocabulary,

phonological awareness, and the syntax of children in various developmental stages. This is

because the stress parents deal with can be passed down to their children. Living in unstable

conditions can stress out the children just as much as their parents. This stress causes

developmental delays in growing children, “this research has shown that growing up in difficult

circumstances dictated by poverty can wreak damage to a child’s cognitive skills that last a
 3
The Effects of Poverty on Children’s Ability to Communicate

lifetime.” They also state that, “the experience of growing up with adults with less nurturing

skills effectively set back their mental development a year or two.” (Smithsonian) One study

found that mother’s in poverty were found to be less affectionate than mother’s in rich families.

This can also be a source of the lacking nurturing in poor children.

Luckily for me before my parents divorced my mother would take me to the library every

Saturday and we would fill up the basket with books to read over the week. This little tradition

did not stop when she went to work. She continues to take me on Saturday to pick up my books

to read through the week. According to research, reading just one hour a night can help bridge

the gap between rich children and poor children. It states that only 23% of children under three

get read to on a daily basis in poor families as opposed to 78% in rich families. This gap is what

is keeping children in poverty behind their other classmates. However, research has shown that

by parents reading to their children that gap can be made closer. I know right now the Children’s

advocate group Five for Five is making a simple campaign statement, “read, talk, or sing to your

children”. Such a simple action can have some great consequences. They know the importance of

this for your child’s developing brain and they know that some parents do not do it. Maybe they

are not aware of what a big difference this simple act has on their children.

Children need advocates in this world, whether to help them succeed or help their

families know what they need to do to help those children succeed. Age one to five is so

important to the developing brain, we are taught that if this crucial point in development is not

used the synapses are gone forever. Can children eventually learn language and learn to

communicate, yes if they are lucky, but how much more had they gained if we had talked, read

or sang to them when they needed it the most.

 4
The Effects of Poverty on Children’s Ability to Communicate

References

Brooks-Gunn, J., & Duncan, G. J. (1997). The Effects of Poverty on Children. The Future of Children, 7(2),
55. doi:10.2307/1602387

Budge, W. P. (2016, January 13). How Does Poverty Influence Learning? Retrieved July 09, 2017, from
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-does-poverty-influence-learning-william-parrett-kathleen-budge

Latest Global Poverty Figures Finally Released by World Bank. (2017, May 31). Retrieved July 01, 2017,
from https://borgenproject.org/global-poverty-figures/

Mansell, W. (2010, February 15). Poor children a year behind in language skills. Retrieved July 12, 2017,
from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/feb/15/poor-children-behind-sutton-trust

Perkins, S. C., Finegood, E. D., & Swain, J. E. (2013, April). Poverty and Language Development: Roles of
Parenting and Stress. Retrieved July 11, 2017, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3659033/

Stromberg, J. (2013, November 25). How Growing Up in Poverty May Affect a Child's Developing Brain.
Retrieved July 14, 2017, from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-growing-up-in-
poverty-may-affect-a-childs-developing-brain-180947832/