The timing and strategy with which parents first introduce their infants to solid foods may be an important predictor of subsequent developmental outcomes. Recent years have seen a decline in the prevalence of traditional parent-led feeding of soft, puréed food and a rise in the prevalence of infant-led complementary feeding. Although there has been some research espousing the benefits of infant-led complementary feeding for improving food fussiness and self-regulation, there has been little exploration of this approach that may impact on other developmental outcomes in children. The current study explores whether aspects of the infant-led approach, specifically the child eating unaided and consuming finger foods and eating with the family, are related to child language outcomes. One hundred thirty one parents of children aged 8-24 months completed questionnaires about their approach to complementary feeding, their current feeding practices, their child's experiences with family foods and child language comprehension/production. The findings suggest that an approach to complementary feeding which promotes infant autonomy in feeding (i.e., eating finger foods rather than puréed foods) and consuming more family foods is related to more advanced child language production and comprehension. Specifically, the prevalence of eating family foods mediated the relationship between eating unaided at the onset of the complementary feeding period and later language outcomes. This study is the first to find a significant relationship between different approaches to introducing solid foods and child language outcomes and these findings highlight the potential for different complementary feeding approaches to influence behaviour beyond mealtimes.

Participatory research with young people centres their knowledge and experiences to generate research outcomes which are meaningful to them. In recent years, there has been an increase in participatory research within education, yet there is still little methodological insight into this approach. In this project, which explored adolescents’ reading motivation and engagement, a young people’s advisory panel was convened to ensure the perspectives and experiences of young people were central to the research. The panel consisted of 6 young people (13 – 15-years-old) from 3 schools in Scotland. The panel worked with researchers at the Universities of XX and XX and a national literacy organisation across one academic year to plan and design the project, carry out data collection and interpret the findings. To achieve this, online group meetings, an online interview training workshop, online 1-1 interviews with the first author and in person peer-interviews were conducted. In this article, the methodological practice of working with a young people’s advisory panel to carry out a research project is evaluated using thematic analysis of panel members’ reflections and meeting content. A discussion of the benefits, limitations, and practicalities are provided for researchers interested in working closely and collaboratively with young people to conduct educational research.

Background: Parents play a crucial role in supporting children's literacy, especially in the first years of school. However, parents can find this challenging if they struggle with reading themselves. We explore whether family learning phonics courses boost parents' reading-related skills and ability to support their children's reading, in a collaboration between UK academics and the National Family Learning Forum.

This article provides a reflective account of the participatory methodology employed in the Growing up a Reader research study. The aim of the Growing up a Reader study was to explore children's (age 9-11) perceptions of a 'reader' and their reasons for reading different text types. This involved training 12 primary school children as student interviewers. Students were interviewed by the adult research team and then interviewed peers themselves (n = 21). For the purpose of this reflection, a data-driven inductive thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted and comparisons were drawn between those led by children and those led by adults. Child-led interviews were more likely to lead to natural discussions about reading as students engaged in the co-creation of knowledge surrounding their shared reading experiences. Child-led interviews also featured creative communication styles and reflexive use of language to understand each other's reading experiences. Reflections upon child-led interviews as a tool for deepening understanding of children's literary experiences are made in order to provide methodological insights relevant for both researchers and practitioners seeking to use participatory methods to collaborate with children. Limitations regarding training and support, and ethical and epistemological considerations regarding adult input are also discussed.