Projects / Programmes
Sociokulturno okolje kot kontekst razvoja otroškega govora in zgodnje pismenosti (Slovene)
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.09.00 |
Social sciences |
Psychology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.01 |
Social Sciences |
Psychology and cognitive sciences |
Researchers (6)
Organisations (2)
Significance for science
The results of the project contribute to the development of science mainly from two aspects, namely in terms of the development of new instruments and approaches for the assessment of economic, social and cultural factors of child's family environment, and in terms of establishing the particular ways in which various factors of socio-cultural environment influence child’s language in the periods of todlerhood and early childhood. The findings are particularly important as all the data was collected directly within the family environment, while we made sure that the data was obtained in the most objective way, which means either through the semi-structured interview with the parents, or by direct observation of parents’ and children’s behaviour and speech during different daily activities. This way, we have overcome the shortcomings of the instruments and approaches with which many researchers, mostly through parental self-assessments, assess the frequency of literacy activities, during which parents stimulate children's language within the family setting. The direct approach to data collection has thus allowed us to largely avoid the collection of social desirable responses given by parents and at the same time to gain the information of a high ecological validity. The study, despite the small sample of the families, represents a relatively broad family study in terms of estimated variables, involving detailed information on different aspects of the child's family environment, both at the level ESCS of the family, as well as the parents’ skills, language competence, play and practices directed toward their child. Most of the correlation studies, in which researchers estimated the relationship between social and economic factors of the family, family literacy and child’s development, focused on single aspects of child’s environment, while we tried to approach the problem of the project interdisciplinary (from developmental, sociological and linguistic point of view) to gain a more holistic picture of the social context and different factors of children's language development. With the help of the established structural mediation model of factors influencing child's development within the family environment, we specifically highlighted and explained significant relationships between family environment and children’s language competence. We established the specific ways in which the favourable family literacy environment effects the language of toddlers and children.
Significance for the country
The presented family study is the first of its kind in Slovenia. Based on the data, which was for the first time in such a broad scope, collected within child’s family, we have identified the protective factors of the family environment (e.g. favourable ESCS, higher reading literacy of parents, parental knowledge of infant development, complexity of parents’ speech, frequent shared reading and literacy activities within and outside of the family, parent’s encouragement of child’s symbolic play) and broader social environment (the length of child's involvement into preschool), which play an important role in language development of toddlers and children between 1 and 6 years of age. The periods of todlerhood and early childhood represent critical periods for the development of language, when timely and professional intervention and compensation of potential developmental delays is still possible and successful. The identification of favourable factors within the family and preschool, established in our project, may represent the scientific basis for decision-making of professionals working in different organizations (e.g., preschool, school, counselling centre) regarding the planning of preventive and intervention work with toddlers and children, as well as their parents. The obtained results suggest the importance of parents’ education on how to promote and scaffold child’s language development during the toddlerhood and early childhood. In addition, our findings on the important relations between the complexity of language, used by parents in their communication with children, parental reading literacy and child's language, emphasize the importance of one’s language competence and literacy as cultural capital, which is, by the inclusion of parents and children in various literacy activities within the family, "transmitted" from generation of parents to generation of their children. These findings show the importance of promoting language competence and literacy skills thorough the whole education system, as these are the competences that allow for the autonomous inclusion into various social contexts, professional activities and the society of knowledge. At the same time, the findings about the important effect of child’s enrolment into preschool (a factor of a broader social environment) on early language development seem to be important for the planning of increasing the level of language competence and literacy at the level of national policies. The length of child’s enrolment into preschool, in addition to child's age and family environment factors, proved to be an important predictor of toddlers' and children's language competence.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2009,
2010,
2011,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2009,
2010,
2011,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
