Baby Talk: Training Nursery Professionals to Techniques Fostering Children's Language Acquisition. Quentin Daviot (EVAL-LAB)

FBK-IRVAPP is pleased to invite you to the following seminar: Baby Talk: Training Nursery Professionals to Techniques Fostering Children’s Language Acquisition .

With the participation of Quentin Daviot (EVAL-LAB). Joint work with Clément de Chaisemartin, Marc Gurgand, Sophie Kern, and Florent de Bodman.

Abstract

Language development inequalities are constructed early in life. In particular, children from low socio-economic status families tend to have lower levels of verbal skills compared to children from higher socio-economic status families. These inequalities persist over time and impact educational, labor, or socio-emotional outcomes. In this paper, we present the results of a large-scale randomized experiment in France that evaluates the effects of an in-service training dedicated to nursery professionals. This training aims at changing perceptions and practices among professionals, and ultimately promotes children’s language development, especially for children most vulnerable to early development barriers. First, we find that the training has strong effects on the knowledge, beliefs, and practices of the professionals. However, we find that the training did not produce any significant effects on children’s verbal development, even on the subgroups that are more likely to benefit from enhanced interactions with professionals.

The seminar is held in English.