Can the socio-economic status of young children influence their language performance? An Indian study

Background: Language development during early childhood is crucial to a child's overall development. The socioeconomic status (SES) is a major contributing factor to development, whose impact on language is less explored in young children especially in a multicultural country like India. This research focussed on assessing the semantic language of children from lower socio-economic (LSE) and higher socio-economic (HSE) status. Method: Sixty typically-developing Kannada speaking children between 2 and 5 years of age were classified into 3 groups (Group I: 2.0-2.11, Group II: 3.0-3.11, and Group III: 4.0-4.11 years), with each group being further divided into HSE and LSE subgroups. Language samples were collected using a picture description task and were analyzed for the semantic (total number of words and different words-TTR) measures. Descriptive statistics was done to determine mean and SD of both measures for each of the participants of the HSE and LSE subgroups. Nonparametric tests determined the level of significance between and across the HSE and LSE subgroups (between each of the 3 groups). Results: The results indicated a significant difference (p<0.05) across the HSE (I-HSE, II-HSE, and II-HSE) and LSE (I-LSE, II-LSE, and III-LSE) subgroups for the semantic measures. Comparison between the HSE and LSE subgroups indicated a significant difference (p<0.05) only between the 3 year-olds. Conclusion: These findings provide an insight into how early and to what extent SES impacts language development in 2, 3, and 4 year-old children.