Intervention research to improve language-learning opportunities and address the inequities of the word gap

Publication date: Available online 8 November 2019Source: Early Childhood Research QuarterlyAuthor(s): Dale Walker, Judith J. CartaAbstractIn this Special Issue we focus on highlighting intervention research addressing inequities in early language-learning experience that may place some children at a disadvantage later in school. Research over the last three decades has documented evidence for the differential amount and quality of children’s early language exposure, referred to as the “word gap.” This gap has been associated with family socioeconomic factors and has important consequences for children’s later vocabulary, literacy and school performance. Given the profound social, academic, and economic costs that may result when young children do not have ample language-learning opportunities, it is of primary importance to prevent inequities in language experience. With renewed interest in finding solutions to the word gap, this Special Issue is organized around a series of literature syntheses analyzing the state of language intervention research. Reviews of intervention studies conducted with parents, early educators and healthcare providers, and with culturally and linguistically diverse participants, as well as reviews of training and implementation practices, and methodological factors that inform intervention are described. Ten featured empirical studies document the efficacy of communication and language interventions and illustrate promising practices design...
Source: Early Childhood Research Quarterly - Category: Child Development Source Type: research