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Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth |
LEARNING LANGUAGE AND LOVING IT:
THE HANEN PROGRAM FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS
OVERVIEW
Learning Language and Loving It: The Hanen Program for Early Childhood Educators is a program designed to promote children’s social, language, and literacy development in early childhood settings. In a random assignment study, child care providers in the treatment group were assigned to receive Hanen training on supporting positive peer interactions. Providers in the control group received training on supporting interactions between children and adults. Providers who received training on supporting peer interactions were significantly more likely to verbally support peer interaction than were providers who did not receive this training. Specifically, they were more likely to facilitate communication between children and to invite children to interact together. These verbal cues led to more instances of children initiating interaction with their peers and more instances of peers responding to that initiation appropriately. The cues also led to more instances of children refusing to interact with peers.
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM
Target population: child care providers
Learning Language and Loving It is a program designed to promote children’s social, language, and literacy development in early childhood settings. The program is primarily delivered in the form of a workshop series for early childhood educators. Workshop topics include verbally supporting interaction between children, developing play situations that encourage interaction between children, and interacting with children in child-friendly ways. Workshop activities include film-viewing, discussions, and role-plays.
EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM
Girolametto, L., Weitzman, E., Greenberg, J. (2004). The Effects of Verbal Support Strategies on Small-Group Peer Interactions. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 35, 254-268.
Evaluated population: 17 child care providers from seven licensed day care centers in metropolitan Toronto, Canada constituted the study sample for this investigation. All of the child care providers were women who at least two years of experience in child care settings. Additionally, they all had completed two years of postsecondary education in early childhood education. Children ranged in age from 32 to 54 months.
Approach: Child care providers were randomly assigned by center to an experimental group (4 centers) and a control group (3 centers). Both groups received a six-week program, led by a speech-language pathologist.
The experimental group received Hanen lessons on developing peer interaction skills. Over the course of six sessions, they watched films and participated in discussions on providing children with interaction-friendly activities and giving children verbal support to interact. Providers were also videotaped interacting with children on three separate occasions and were provided with feedback on their interactions.
The control group received Hanen lessons on strategies for enhancing adult-child interactions within small groups. Over the course of six sessions, they watched films and participated in discussions on how to interact with children in child-friendly ways. Providers were also videotaped interacting with children on three separate occasions and were provided with feedback on their interactions.
Immediately before the six-week program commenced, all teachers were videotaped interacting with four children for 15 minutes in the dramatic play area and for 15 minutes in the block play area. Teachers were re-videotaped immediately upon completion of the program, and again, three months later.
Tapes were coded for instances of verbal support on the part of teachers. These supports were classified into the domains of restriction (i.e., stating a rule that restricts action), communication facilitation (i.e., interpreting a child’s utterance or prompting a child to speak), peer referral (i.e., inviting children to interact with each other), and indirect referral (i.e., alerting children to things they have in common). Tapes were also coded to reflect children’s responses to caregiver’s verbal supports. Children were classified as following the provider’s suggestion to interact with a peer (uptake) or ignoring or overtly rejecting the provider’s suggestion (override). Peer responses to the initiation of interaction were classified as appropriate (acknowledge) or as ignoring or rejecting (no response).
Results: Upon completion of the program, compared with providers assigned to the control condition, providers assigned to the experimental condition used a significantly higher number of verbal supports. Additionally, a higher percentage of their utterances were supports. Providers assigned to the experimental condition facilitated communication and engaged in peer referral more often than control providers, but did not restrict or engage in indirect referral significantly more often.
Compared with children in child care centers assigned to the control group, children in centers assigned to the experimental group used a significantly greater number of both uptakes and overrides. The proportion of caregivers’ verbal supports that led to uptakes was greater in the experimental group, but only marginally so. Similarly, the proportion of supports that led to overrides was lower in the experimental group, but only marginally so. Experimental children were not more likely to respond to the initiation of interaction appropriately or any less likely to respond by ignoring or rejecting. The absolute number of appropriate responses to interaction initiation was significantly higher in the experimental group, however.
Non-experimental analyses revealed that, within the experimental group, communication facilitation and peer referrals were the most successful methods of encouraging interaction between children.
SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION
Curriculum materials available for purchase at:
References:
Girolametto, L., Weitzman, E., Greenberg, J. (2004). The Effects of Verbal Support Strategies on Small-Group Peer Interactions. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 35, 254-268.
Program categorized in this guide according to the following:
Evaluated participant ages: 2-4
Evaluated participant grades: pre-school
Program age ranges in the guide: early childhood
Program components: child care/early childhood education
Measured outcomes: life skills
Program information last updated on 7/24/07.
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© Child Trends 2003 |