Low-cost teacher-implemented intervention improves toddlers’ language and math skills
Dorthe Bleses, Peter Jensen, Pauline Slot, Laura Justice
Abstract
tThe first years of life are foundational for children’s cognitive and social–emotional development and tosubsequent development in a variety of domains. In many countries, an increasing number of toddlers isenrolled in early childhood education (ECE) programs, which can facilitate early development. However,the quality of these programs is often mediocre. The present study represents a large-scale randomizedcontrol trial (87 childcare centers and 1116 toddlers) designed to elevate the quality of instruction inECE programs serving toddlers. We show that a low-cost 20-week intervention providing teachers withsequence and scope and supportive tools to be more explicit and intentional in their interactions withchildren resulted in positive, mainly medium- to large-sized effects on targeted language and math skills.