Training Day Care Staff to Facilitate Children’s Language

Abstract

This exploratory study investigated the outcome of in-service training on language facilitation strategies of child care providers in day care centers. Sixteen caregivers were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Caregivers were taught to be responsive to children's initiations, engage children in interactions, model simplified language, and encourage peer interactions. At posttest, the experimental group waited for children to initiate, engaged them in turn-taking, used face to face interaction, and included uninvolved children more frequently than the control group. In turn, children in the experimental group talked more, produced more combinations, and talked to peers more often than the control group. The results support the viability of this training model in early childhood education settings and suggest directions for future research.

Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils

“…It may be that attendance in such workshops increased teachers' use of quality language modeling techniques, but it may also be true that teachers who exhibit high-quality instruction and who are good teachers of language are especially drawn to such workshops. Research provides some guidance concerning what high-quality professional development in the area of language instruction looks like (e.g., Girolametto, Weitzman, & Greenberg, 2003;Wasik et al, 2006), but we have insufficient detail on the workshop experiences of the teachers to draw any firm conclusions regarding this finding. When attempting to predict quality literacy instruction, results showed that teachers who reported a higher sense of self efficacy and held more adult-centered ideas received higher ratings for quality of literacy instruction.…”

“…This is an interesting finding that brings to mind some of the differences discussed early in this article about the distinction between high-quality language instruction and high-quality literacy instruction. Language instruction that is of high quality requires adults to provide well-tuned, responsive conversational input to children that features use of open-ended questions, expansions, advanced linguistic models, and recasts (see Girolametto et al, 2003). Because a key characteristic of high-quality language instruction is linguistic responsiveness of adults to children within dynamic exchanges, high-quality language instruction is virtually impossible to script procedurally.…”

Supporting Children’s Oral Language Development in the Preschool Classroom

“…Language acquisition is also fostered when teachers are responsive to the child's interests and help to extend the conversations (Cabell et al 2015;Piasta et al 2012;Girolametto et al 2003). Knowing the positive effects that oral language in the preschool classroom exerts on later reading outcomes makes it particularly important for teachers to find opportunities throughout the school day to engage preschool children in conversations.…”

Caregiver’s Involvement in Early Intervention for Children with Communication Disorders

“…Ultimately, the parents are empowered to acquire knowledge and skills to support the intervention process. Systematic and committed efforts on this front have resulted in caregivers improving their attitudes vis-à-vis themselves and their children, as well as capacitating them to train and teach their wards (Beckman-Bell, 1981;Tanock and Girolametto, 1992;Baxendale and Hesketh, 2003;Girolametto et al, 2003).…”