Scott McConnell, professor of educational psychology and director of community engagement for the Center for Early Education and Development, is a member of the new Bridging the Word Gap Research Network leadership team. The two-year $593,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for which this team will serve, was announced and endorsed on October 16 at a White House event.

Led by University of Kansas researchers, the leadership team will work to help bridge the “30 million word gap,” which refers to the “difference in the number of words that some children from poverty backgrounds hear by age 4 compared with the experiences of other more affluent children,” according to a news article posted on the University of Kansas website. Read the full article.