Betty Hart

R E M E M B E R I N G T H E W O R K
A N D A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S

O F D R . B E T T Y H A R T

Betty Hart, Ph.D. 1927–2012

Emeritus Associate Research Professor and Scientist, University of Kansas, Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies
1949 Undergraduate Degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley
1950s traveling, backpacking, hiking France, Switzerland, Russia
1960s Accountant, Translator, Teacher Tucson & Seattle
1965 Teaching Certificate, Laboratory Preschool, University of Washington, Seattle
1967 Master’s Degree, Human Development, University of Kansas
1969 Doctorate in Developmental and Child Psychology, Human Development and Family Life, University of Kansas

EARLY INTERVENTION TO FORESTALL THE TERRIBLE EFFECTS

OF POVERTY

Dr. Hart’s early work, initiated during the 1960s War on Poverty, began in Kansas City, Kansas, where she focused on bringing “knowledge of child development to the front line in an optimistic effort to intervene early…” (Hart & Risley, American Educator, 2003). Incidental teaching procedures were demonstrated to increase children’s communication and formed the basis for many of the evidence-based language intervention techniques used today.

DECADES BEFORE THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING LANGUAGE IN FUNCTIONAL CONTEXTS WAS UNDERSTOOD

Contrary to the deficit model then popular, Dr. Hart’s work showed that minority children reared in poverty were not lacking in language ability.
Along with Dr. Risley, she speculated that the disparity in vocabulary they observed began earlier than preschool… when children were just beginning to develop language.

In 1982, they began

their landmark study of

children’s language

learning experiences

in homes.

THE METHODOLOGY USED IN THEIR STUDY IS

UNPRECEDENTED

42 infants were followed from 7 to 36 months of age during one-hour long visits to homes. Everything said to the baby and all that occurred in context was recorded. Each tape took 16 hours to transcribe and code for words, context, and grammar. It took Dr. Hart more than 22,000 hours, or 11 person-years, to collect the data. It took another decade to analyze and write up the findings.

STAGGERING DIFFERENCES IN THE CUMULATIVE AMOUNT OF Talk Heard in Homes

Parents of children who had the largest vocabularies at 36 months:

Talked more often
Interacted more
Asked open-ended questions
Used fewer prohibitions
Children’s early experiences made for staggering differences in the cumulative amount of talk they heard in their homes ranging from 600 to 3,000 words per hour. By 4 years, Hart estimated some children heard as many as 45 million words; others, 13 million.

Disparities in Children’s Early Vocabulary Growth

From their study findings:

Dr. Hart’s seminal study MAKING A conducted with Dr. Todd MEANINGFUL DIFFERENCE

Risley was published in 1992 and chronicled in two

books, Meaningful Differences (1995) and The

Social World of Children Learning to Talk (1999).

“Our hope is that our discoveries, as documented here, may improve many children’s lives by continuing to influence what parents, caregivers and policymakers do.” (Dr. Betty Hart, 1995)

Dr. Hart was recognized in 1999 by the Knowledge generated

from their work about the importance of a language-rich environment has been compelling to research scientists and early educators, and has resonated with parents and policymakers as well. In the words of one Congressman:

“[This work] alerts

us to how much

each person’s future

intellectual ability

hinges upon his or her

experience in the

first years of life.”

U.S. Senator Thomas Daschle

WHERE MEANINGFUL DIFFERENCES HAS MADE

CHANGES

“The whole thing reads like a detective story of the most serious academic kind.” (Lois Bloom, 1995)

REPORTED IN THE MEDIA, FROM MAGAZINES TO NEWSPAPERS:

“Talkative Parents Make Kids Smarter” (Science News)

“Your Every Word” (Prevention)

“The Smartest Thing You Can Do for Your Baby” (Parenting)

“A Hard Look at Words” (U.S. News and World Report)

DR. HART’S WORK HAS INFLUENCED MANY PEOPLE…

A year after publication of Meaningful Differences, then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote about the importance of Hart and Risley’s findings in her book, It Takes a Village.

…AND INSPIRED CHANGE

The impact of Hart and Risley’s work has been immense. It has provided researchers, early interventionists, and educators with knowledge about how important early experience is for children’s language development and later literacy. There are more than 3,000 journal citations to their 1992 study and more than 50,000 copies of their books in circulation.

HART & RISLEY 1992 STUDY CITATIONS IN EACH YEAR

[Meaningful Differences] may very well change our thinking about how we arrange early experiences for our children, if not revolutionize our approach to childhood. It should be required reading by anyone seriously involved in early education and intervention as well as policymakers.” Journal of Early Intervention, 1/1/1997

Provides support for current early childhood policy and legislative initiatives, including:

Early Head Start
Race to the Top, Early Learning Challenge
Reach Out and Read

Model early education preschool and child care programs, neighborhood and town reform efforts designed to address the achievement gap, informational campaigns, and technological innovations have all used the lessons reported in Meaningful Differences to support their platforms.

Hart and Risley’s findings underpin key efforts:

Educare Learning Network Model
Baby College at the Harlem Children’s Zone
“Talk/Read/Succeed” initiatives and campaigns
“Former Post columnist Raspberry uses Baby Steps to transform lives”

With Dr. Betty Hart’s passing, we lose an exemplary behavioral scientist,

colleague, mentor, author, advocate, and friend.

Betty’s legacy may well be

the meaningful changes that

have occurred, and

continue, as a result of her pioneering research discoveries concerning the importance of children’s earliest experiences with language and the potential of early experience to either optimize or diminish development.