Examining the role of early childhood teacher-child interactions in children’s language learning

• In Event: Exploring the Connection Between Preschool Teacher Beliefs, Responsiveness and Child Learning Outcomes

Abstract

Background & Objectives:
Adult-child interactions during the first 5 years of a child’s life play a crucial role in shaping their language outcomes (Bruner, 1983; Hirsh-Pasek & Burchinal, 2006; Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2001). As more children have been enrolling in center-based preschool programs, high quality teacher-child interactions have been shown to positively influence children’s concurrent and future language skills, and have been found to be especially important for children coming from culturally and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds (Harris et al., 2011; Kane et al., 2023; Vatou et al., 2023). The key features of teacher-child interactions that drive children’s language development, however, remains unclear.
This study’s objective is to uncover the most important feature of teacher-child interactions that drives language learning by closely examining characteristics of teachers interactions with children that could promote children’s language learning. Such characteristics include teachers’ levels of sensitive responsiveness to their students’ academic and social needs, as well as the quality of their communication with students. The question that the study addresses is:
How are teachers promoting language development through their interactions with children in ECE classrooms?

Data & Method:
To address the research question, this study conducted secondary analyses of data collected from the Educare National Evaluation. The Educare National Evaluation continuously collects data from participating children, families, and staff to evaluate program quality, implementation, outcomes across all schools in the national Educare Network enrolling children and families from low-income and underrepresented backgrounds.

The study focuses on an ethnically and linguistically diverse sample of 2730 children, 2009 of whom are monolingual English speakers and 721 who are Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learners enrolled in Educare Head Start programs. 8 cohorts of children across 20 Educare schools who first enrolled in Head Start programs between the years 2010 and 2017 are specifically represented in this sample, and children’s average age of enrollment was 29.22 months-old (SD = 14.39).

Cross-classified hierarchical linear modeling analyses were conducted to investigate the predictive relationship between teacher-child interactions and children’s language skills during their second year in Head Start. CLASS measures for teacher sensitivity, regard for student perspectives, language modeling, and quality of feedback were used to examine particular teacher characteristics during classroom interactions, while standard PPVT scores were used as measures for children’s receptive vocabulary skills.

Results & Implications:
Results from the cross-classified models observed that having teachers who exhibit high levels of emotional sensitivity and responsiveness in the classroom increases students’ vocabulary scores by 0.52 standard points (p < 0.05). The other measures for teacher characteristics were found to not have significant effects on children’s language learning. Such findings can help to begin identifying the specific features of teacher-child interactions that are shaping children’s language learning. They also address the relationship between sensitive responsiveness and children’s language development in the ECE context, as well as the benefits of adult sensitive responsiveness to children in linguistically diverse classrooms. These results suggest that teachers’ levels of sensitive responsiveness could play a key role in shaping the quality of their students’ language skills.

Author

• Michelle Rose Madlansacay, University of Chicago