Professional Development as a Speech-Language Pathology Intervention: Does it Improve Child Language and Early Literacy Skills?

Abstract

The years before a child enters school can be a pivotal time of language and literacy development. Language and early literacy skills in early childhood are important determining factors of later life outcomes. Unfortunately, many children living in areas of social disadvantage begin formal schooling with language and early literacy skills substantially behind their peers and, without suitable intervention, are unlikely to catch-up.

The overall purpose of the thesis was to explore whether a public health, evidence-based language and literacy-based PD intervention, facilitated by SLPs, improved educator and preschooler outcomes.

Specific aims were to

1. Investigate if early childhood educators used language and literacy-promoting behaviours more frequently following completion of the intervention (Paper 1)

2. Explore if preschoolers’ language and early literacy skills, as reported by their early childhood educators and parents/carers, improved after the PD intervention (Paper 1)

3. Determine if preschoolers’ language and early literacy skills improved after the intervention as shown by objective, standardised measures (Paper 2)

4. Investigate if the intervention resulted in improved language and early literacy outcomes for preschoolers with low language ability (Paper 3)

5. To find out if any specific preschooler characteristics predicted improvement in language and early literacy skills following the intervention (Paper 3)