Reduced Opportunities

Further, with fewer novel experiences to talk about, the children could be assumed to have reduced opportunities for extended discourse with their families. Beals, deTemple, and Dickinson (1994) lend support to this idea in their research findings which stressed that opportunities to engage in extended discourse in the home build the type of skills that are needed for high levels of literacy. Snow et al's (1991) research showed that as might be expected, parents who are involved in a variety of activities from working outside of the home to participating in various social activities will have more topics to talk about and potentially more interesting conversations with their family members. They also suggest that these children become better readers.

The low–income families in my study could not afford educational technology such as a computer and an internet connection to use as a learning tool and to explore places that they could not afford to visit. Thus, these families were not only unable to readily access the library where free internet connections are available, but also lack computer technology in their homes like the majority of the middle class families. This inequality in access to modern information technology in society is commonly referred to as the digital divide due to differential access by socio–economic level. Finally, as Thomas (2001) points out, paradoxically poor families often face many barriers to accessing programs that were originally designed to help them overcome their social and economic difficulties and improve the general conditions of their lives.