Welcome
Model Demonstration Center for Promoting Language and Literacy Readiness
in Early Childhood
Juniper Gardens Children’s Project,
Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span
Studies
University of Kansas
The purpose of this Model Demonstration Center for Promoting Language and Readiness in Early Childhood is to improve the early language learning and readiness opportunities provided to infants and young children with disabilities served in infant-toddler Part C and early childhood Part B programs of IDEA.
This center supports the use of evidence-based naturalistic language and early literacy interventions across three programs serving children receiving intervention services through Part C and following their transition into Part B/619 or other preschool services to provide continuity of intervention. Infants and toddlers from each participating site receive intervention delivered by parents and/or early educators to promote language and early literacy readiness. Infants and toddlers will be recruited and followed through their transition into preschool to monitor their progress while they receive the intervention.
The intervention disseminated through this center in partnership with participating sites includes, functional, naturalistic strategies to promote communication and language derived from Responsive Intervention Prelinguistic and Milieu Teaching, Dialogic Reading and Shared Book Reading which have an extensive research base supporting their effectiveness and extends upon previous research conducted on the strategies by the team. The language-promoting strategies disseminated and evaluated through this center include a combination of strategies such as, following a child’s lead, commenting and labeling, strategies to prompt communication and the use of these strategies across play, care routines and early literacy activities within the context of the natural environment (home, community-based child care, etc.). Interventions are individualized and delivered through a collaborative professional development model based on consultation, coaching, and methods to ensure the fidelity of intervention implementation across activities and ongoing progress monitoring.
Use of the model by the participating early childhood educators and to document the effects of the intervention model on the communication development of infants and toddlers and preschool-aged children with disabilities. Ongoing professional development will be provided through workshops and delivery of project resources to special education, general education and program administration within each of the sites to ensure the sustainability of the model.
Dale Walker,
PhD, Principal Investigator |
Steve Warren, PhD, Co-Principal, Investigator |
