1-092 - Measuring Teacher-Toddler Interactions Similarly Across Cultural Contexts: How Do They Relate to Children’s Development?

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Effective teacher-child interactions predict positive social and academic outcomes for children in the US (Hamre, 2014), Europe (Cadima et al., 2010) and South America (Leyva et al., 2015). These findings suggest that examining teacher-child interactions in similar ways across cultural contexts provides useful information regarding key classroom contributions to children’s development. Despite these advances, the field has very little systematic understanding of what happens in childcare classrooms serving younger children and how such quality relates to their development. We address this gap by examining the relationship between teacher-toddler interactions and development across multiple diverse cultural contexts. The studies use similar measures of classroom quality and children’s development, allowing for a cohesive interpretation of the findings across diverse cultural settings. The first paper provides an overview of CLASS as a measure of teacher-child interactions in toddler classrooms and then on the unique contribution of quality to toddlers’ language, social and emotional development in the US Early Head Start program. The second paper explores the impact of interaction quality in Peruvian daycares on infant and toddlers’ communication, fine motor, and problem solving skills. The final paper examines the extent to which quality of teacher–toddler interactions in Finnish early care classrooms predict vocabulary, self-regulation, social and emerging academic skills development. Time will be provided for questions and discussion with the audience to further the exploration of teacher-toddler interactions and development across contexts.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Jennifer LoCasale-Crouch, University of Virginia

Discussant

• Robert Pianta, University of Virginia

Individual Presentations

• Teacher-Child Interaction Quality and Children’s Development in Early Head Start - Presenting Author: Jennifer LoCasale-Crouch, University of Virginia; Francisca Romo, University of Virginia; Virginia Vitiello, University of Virginia

• The Effect of Quality of Caregiver-Child Interactions on Developmental Outcomes for Children 6-24 Months of Age in Peru - Presenting Author: Caridad Araujo, Inter-American Development Bank; Marta Dormal, Inter-American Development Bank; Norbert Schady, Inter-American Development Bank

• The Effect of the Quality of Teacher-Child Interaction on Child Outcomes in Finnish Toddler Classrooms - Presenting Author: Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, University of Jyväskylä; Jenni Salminen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland