Research and References
The Language is the Key training model addresses six major areas:
Early language, literacy and play development
Bilingual language development
Family involvement
Language facilitation
Cultural relevance
Adult learning
Early Language and Literacy Development
Importance of Language Development
Language competence is one of the main developmental events of early childhood. Helping children develop language skills is a major concern that staff have for children with developmental delays (Bagnato, Kontos, & Neisworth, 1987) and particularly when children with developmental delays are also limited in English proficiency (Roseberry-McKibbin & Eicholtz, 1994).
Foundations of Early Language and Literacy Development
Language and literacy development begin very early in a child's life. Here is a brief description of the young child's early behaviors that form a foundation for later language and literacy development:
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Language: |
Listening, watching adult faces, babling, gestures, single words, word combinations. |
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Print: |
Recognizing pictures, environmental print, and logos (e.g., stop signs, billboards), familiar words, letter sounds. |
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Writing: |
Scribbling, drawing recognizable pictures, pretend writing (lines, letter-like symbols), familiar words, letters. |
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Books: |
Handling, looking at pictures, telling a story, pretend reading, interest in text. |
Bilingual Language Development
For children whose first language is not English, research in bilingual education has shown that children need to have their first language facilitated in the early years, and also need effective language facilitation in English (Cummins, 1984; Gutierrez, 1993; Wong-Fillmore & Valadez, 1986). Encouraging families and teachers to maintain children's native language is beneficial because bilingualism has been associated with many cognitive, social and economic advantages (e.g., Albert & Obler, 1978; Cummins, 1979; McLaughin, 1996). Children who are bilingual may be equally proficient in both languages or they may know one language better than the other. Usually the language that predominates depends on the context (e.g., home vs. school) and the opportunities the child has to use the language. Bilingual language development may differ from monolingual language development. At first, there may be a temporary lag in both languages and the child may often switch codes (e.g., Yo estaba PLAYendo), but eventually the child will learn to distinguish the languages and catch up.
Family Involvement
Family involvement is an integral part of services for preschool children. The Language is the Key training model draws upon naturally occurring parent-child interactions. It teaches easy to implement activities such as play and looking at picture books to provide parents with strategies that will help them facilitate their child's language. Parents can be taught successfully to implement language interventions with young children with disabilities and children who are developing normally (Dale et al., 1996, Kaiser, 1993; Whitehurst et al. 1988).
For children who are bilingual, parents are ideally suited to facilitate their child's language development as they may be the only persons who are proficient in the child's native language.
Language Facilitation Strategies
Adult-Child Interactions
Studies of early parent-child interactions described a process by which the adult guides and supports the child's learning by building on what the child is already able to do. This is referred to as scaffolding by Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976). The notion of scaffolding was translated into specific teaching strategies used successfully to assess and teach language and literacy skills to young children with language delays (Norris & Hoffman, 1990; Olswang, Bain & Johnson, 1992), children at-risk (Juel, 1996), and children from diverse cultural backgrounds (Gutierrez-Clellen & Quinn, 1993).
Overarching Teaching Approach
Effective scaffolding is flexible, responsive to the child, and draws upon a broad variety of strategies. This perspective is reflected in the overarching teaching approach of the Language is the Key training model, Follow the Child's Lead.
Follow the Child's Lead is one of the defining aspects of a developmentally appropriate practice and its facilitative effect on early language development has been documented for children who are developing normally (Tomasello & Farrar, 1986), and children with disabilities (Yoder, Kaiser, Alpert & Fischer, 1993).
Strategies: The two videotapes teach the following three language facilitation strategies:
Comment and wait. Modeling language by making comments that reflect the child's focus of interest is a universally recommended practice in language facilitation models (e.g., Fey, 1986). Describing pictures in books or what the child is doing during play, then pausing to allow time for a response is an effective way to elicit language.
Ask questions and wait. Adults use two major types of questions with children: open-ended and closed questions. Closed questions are those questions that require a yes-no answer or pointing response. Open-ended questions require that the child actually produce a word or utterance. For example, What do you see? versus Do you see a cat? Children need time to think and code their thoughts into language, so it is important for adults to give children at least 5 seconds to respond after they ask a question. A longer wait time also lets the child know the adult is interested in what the child has to say.
Respond by adding a little more. Expansion of the child's utterances is a basic tool in language facilitation. The adult repeats what the child says and then expands the utterance with one or two new words. This allows the child to contrast her utterance with the adult's expansion and also hear the next level of difficulty for language production. For example, if the child says "ball," the adult says "ball, big ball." This reinforces the child's talking, gives her the support for the next level of complexity, and provides new information.
Language and Picture Books. Language around picture book reading has been identified as a critical language experience leading to school success. Picture book interactions provide a very rich opportunity for young children to learn language and early literacy skills. The picture book setting--when adults and children share interaction around picture books--encourages children to talk and elicits teaching behaviors from parents, as they label pictures and provide feedback for their child (Ninio & Bruner, 1978; Wells, 1985; Whitehurst et al. 1988).
Language and Play: Play is an activity in which young children spend a significant amount of time (Rubin, Fein, & Vandenberg, 1983) and is an ideal context for learning (Bruner, 1973, Garvey, 1977). The natural context provided by play activities has been used successfully to facilitate language and early literacy acquisition with typically developing children and children with disabilities (Linder, 1990).
Play appears to facilitate the representational abilities that serve as a foundation for language and literacy development and provides children with opportunities to learn about the various functions and uses of print and language (Cazden 1984; Morrow, 1989; Pellegrini, 1983).
Cultural Relevance
The Language is the Key training model was developed with careful attention to how culture influences adult-child interactions. Play is a rich environment for communication development for young children across cultures (Nagasaki, Katayama & Morimoto, 1993). Early exposure to picture books also occurs across a variety of cultures and ethnic groups (Teale, 1986). The training program and videotape scripts were submitted for review to early childhood experts representative of diverse cultural backgrounds to assure broad cultural relevance.
Principles of Adult Learning
The Language is the Key training model includes training features that have been shown to be the most effective in teaching adults (Joyce & Showers, 1980). These include: presentation of the underlying theory, observation of the method, as demonstrated by experts, practice of the method and coaching in real situations. Training staff to provide each other with constructive feedback and assist each other in setting goals (peer coaching) has proven to be an effective means of increasing desired teaching behaviors and communication (Hendrickson, Sroka & Gable, 1989; Miller, Harris, & Watanabe, 1991).
Research on the effectiveness of the Language is the Key training model.
The effectiveness of the Language is the Key strategies and video programs has been documented in English (Dale, Crain-Thoreson, Notari-Syverson, & Cole, 1996) and in Korean (Lim & Cole 2002). Studies are currently being conducted in Spanish.
Facilitating Young Korean Children's Language Development Through Parent Training Picture Book Interaction
This study examined the effectiveness of parent training in the use of language facilitation techniques around picture book interactions with Korean mothers and children. Twenty-one children, age 2.0 to 4.3 years and their mothers participated. The children were reported to be developing typically and Korean was the parents' first language, and was spoken in the home. Dyads were randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition. The treatment group received approximately one hour of instruction in specific language facilitation techniques during picture book interactions. The control group received approximately one hour of instruction in general emergent literacy development and the importance of first language acquisition. Results from pretest-posttest language samples indicated significant between-group differences in parent use of methods and in children's language production, both favoring the treatment group. These methods may provide an efficient, low-cost approach for strengthening language skills in young children whether they are developing typically or language delayed (Lim & Cole, 2002).
A follow-up study was done a year after the initial study. Results from post-test language samples indicated significant between-group differences in parent use of methods and in children's language production, both favoring the treatment group (Lim & Cole 2000).
References
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