Socioeconomic Status

Introduction
Socioeconomic status is a way of ranking an individual’s relative position in a society founded on power, status, and class. It is considerably represented via occupation, educational level, wealth, and financial resources. Individuals with lower socioeconomic status are basically concerned with daily living; practical concerns associated with making both ends meet i.e. personal or financial (Rowe, 2008). Conversely, development of vocabulary is a major aspect of academic learning. It is a procedure through which individuals acquire words. The socioeconomic status of a population is specifically measured in terms of occupation, education and familial income. It is mainly understood as a social class or social standing of a person.

A well recognized aspect of verbal skills includes the knowledge of vocabulary. Often vocabulary is referred to as a set of words familiar to an individual. An extensive research body indicates that knowledge of vocabulary is a significant aspect to the success of literacy or comprehension (Christ & Wang, 2010). Previous studies indicate that there is a significant difference in the verbal capability which is evident when an individual enters in a school. It also reveals that these types of disparities often start within the initial few years of a child’s life. From birth to 6 years of age, during the pre-reading period, almost all the learning takes place orally. For this reason, the language and oral vocabulary knowledge are the foundation for a child on the path to academic success, or worse, academic failure (Farkas & Beron, 2004). It is therefore, imperative for an SLP or Speech-Language Pathologist to examine the link between early vocabulary development and SES for the purpose of best supporting the development of language of disadvantaged children when they seek admission in school. Again, it is evident that lower SES status will negatively affect vocabulary

Fernald, Marchman & Weisleder (2013) conducted a “prospective cohort longitudinal study” that primarily assessed the language development processing efficiency and learning of vocabulary of children at 18 and 24 months of age belonging to families of different socioeconomic status. Forty-eight children were recruited for this study. The vocabulary of these children were assessed through MacArthur CDI. Hollingshead four-factor Index of Social Status was employed for determining the familial SES. It was founded on the weighted average of both the parent’s occupation and education. The collected data was analyzed through ANOVA which revealed a significant effect on the SES and vocabulary development at both 18 and 24 months. In addition, the developmental alteration pattern in vocabulary was diversified as an SES function. Significant group differences were observed in the vocabulary scores of children belonging to different socioeconomic backgrounds. This was evident in those 18 months old and was higher at 24 months of