A Sociolinguistic Investigation of the Speech of African American Preschoolers

In this study we attempted to investigate aspects of the sociolinguistic environment of African American preschoolers. Specifically, preschool teachers were asked to identify African American preschoolers who "have trouble speaking." Subsequently, speech-language pathologists analyzed samples of the children’s speech to isolate the speech patterns that may have corresponded to the teacher’s judgments. Subjects included 27 children who were enrolled in an inner city Head Start program. Head Start teachers belonging to the same race and community as the children acted as judges. The analysis yielded a number of speech patterns that distinguished the children judged to have trouble speaking from children judged to have no difficulties in speaking.