Time period:

2014-2015.

Target group:

0-3 years old children in nurseries and daycare institutions.   

Number of participants:

10 nurseries and 10 daycare institutions in Randers.

Intervention:

The professional course of development consists of four two-day courses and trains the professionals in the four basic principles of the Abecedarian approach:

• Prioritization of language: The adult learns to be more aware of his or her use of language in the social intercourse with the individual child and to find more opportunities to have conversations with the child - and to use a richer and more varied language in these conversations to stimulate the language of the child.
• Learning by playing: The adult learns to use simple games to enhance the interaction with the individual child or with a little group of children. The adult works with repetitions and with differentiating the conversation, so it fits with the learning level of the individual child.
• Communicative reading. The adult learns to use reading in an interactive way with one or a few children, to stimulate the children’s communicative and interactive abilities.
• Learning in care situations. The adult is trained to see and use the daily routine care situations (e.g. change of nappy, eating) as a learning situation, in which care, emotional support and learning can be ensured through conversations and adult-child interactions.

The professional course of development builds on the evidence from the research program VIDA’s approach to training and anchorage of pedagogic development and innovation.    

Research:

Through the pilot project, the American Abecedarian Program has been translated to and tested in a Danish context in the spring of 2015. The project is integrated in a professional course with a focus on organizational learning that builds on the evidence program VIDA.

An anthropological observation study in the pilot project’s 10 nurseries and 10 daycare institutions has examined how implementable the program is. In addition, the organizational part of the program – including weekly work plans, evaluations and a poster with specific development goals for each child - has been examined.

The aim is to develop a program that can give the pedagogues and day minders tools and methods that can be maintained after the training program ends by establishing positive practices and points to pay attention to in the regular interactions with the individual child.

The translation of the program included a checklist for the examination of implementation fidelity. The list was used in a questionnaire survey showing which staff groups who had answered the questionnaire, and furthermore which of these had high fidelity.

In the project, possible ways of measuring the development of the children are also studied - internally by daily evaluations of the individual child’s engagement and profit. Moreover, possible ways of measuring the effects at a general level, on the child’s development, and specifically at a socio-emotional level, are studied too.

Two new measuring instruments are being used in a Danish context (ASQ-3 and DECA-I/T), of which DECA-I/T has been translated to Danish for the first time. 

Partners:

Results:

The pilot project was completed in the autumn of 2015. An effect evaluation is expected to be launched in 2016. The pilot project was completed in the autumn of 2015. An effect evaluation is expected to be launched in 2016.    

Keywords:

Professional development, 0-3 years old, language, nursery, daycare institution.