Supporting teachers’ enrichment of children’s language environment in early childhood education and care settings
Supporting teachers’ enrichment of children’s language environment in early childhood education and care settings
Over the past decade of more ecologically valid observational and intervention studies in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings, it has become increasingly evident that we need more knowledge about how Professional Development models lay the foundation for endorsing evidence-based practices among staff in a way that connects to child outcomes. It is particularly important to understand how teachers can offer children more cognitively challenging and language-rich interactions with individualized support. The four papers in the present symposium address this issue, with the first connecting assessments of US teachers’ knowledge and skills in supporting dual language learners to child outcomes, and the three subsequent papers presenting intervention work with teachers in China, Norway, and the US, respectively. The overarching aim is to discuss how effective language interventions in ECEC settings can attune to the diversity of learners as well as to local and national educational contexts.