Language Does Matter: But There is More to Language Than Vocabulary and Directed Speech

In response to Golinkoff, Hoff, Rowe, Tamis‐LeMonda, and Hirsh‐Pasek's (2018) commentary, we clarify our goals, outline points of agreement and disagreement between our respective positions, and address the inadvertently harmful consequences of the word gap claim. We maintain that our study constitutes a serious empirical challenge to the word gap. Our findings do not support Hart and Risley's claim under their definition of the verbal...