Early Years

Preschool children who live in poverty and are not developing their vocabularies are at a significant risk of struggling academically throughout elementary and middle school, according to a recently released study.

The good news, the study found, is that specific reading instruction for preschoolers—such as letter, sound, and word recognition—can help close the learning gap between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers, suggests George Farkas, a professor of sociology at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. He is a co-author of the study, "Family Linguistic Culture and Social Reproduction: Verbal Skill From Parent to Child in the Preschool and School Years."

Mr. Farkas and Kurt J. Beron, an associate professor of social science at the University of Texas at Dallas, found that by the time most children enter 1st grade, their vocabularies are growing at roughly the same pace. It's during the early years—before 1st grade— that "social-class...