Effectiveness of Language interventions taught by SLTs to Early Childhood Professionals: Outcomes from the Lebanese multilingual context

In Lebanon, children are growing up in a context of vulnerabilities characterized by a multilingual environment which impacts the quality of the linguistic input. In this context, educators and preschool teachers are struggling to find the best strategies to promote language development. SLTs knowledge and expertise enable them to play a major role by “teaching” communication and language support strategies to early childhood professionals. This study is focusing on the ways in which preschool teachers (PreK-Ts) and educators learned to implement supportive language strategies.

Method:

Multiple baseline single cases experimental design will be applied with direct individualized in-site intervention, targeting four Prek-Ts and four daycare educators through teaching functions as illustrated in the framework of Biel et al. (2019): 1) sharing information, 2) modelling, 3) prompting, guiding, scaffolding and 4) providing feedback. Specific individualized targets in communication facilitating strategies and language modelling strategies will be assessed across the intervention. Two individualized intervention protocols will be provided by SLTs through two different activities enabling language interactions, free play for daycare educators and interactive book reading for Prek-Ts.

Results:

The cumulative intervention intensities will be calculated in order to determine the appropriate dosage of SLT teaching interventions, according to participants’ characteristics, background and contexts.

Conclusion:

The specific outcomes of this study will help SLTs in Lebanon to identify the components and the dosage that are the most effective in changing adult behavior in terms of using facilitated communication and supportive language strategies.