De relatie tussen de taalontwikkeling van jonge kinderen en het voorschoolse taalaanbod en de kwaliteit van taalstimulering en de mogelijk modererende rol van het zelfvertrouwen van de kinderen.

Abstract

This study examined the links between the provision of language activities and language supportive interactions and the language development of children in daycare and preschool programs. The possible moderating role of children’s self confidence was also examined during this study. For this study 113 toddlers between the age of two and three years were observed in their classroom. The observations focussed on the language development and the quality off teacher-child stimulation, additional there were questionnaires about the provision of language activities in these classrooms.

Earlier research shows that there is a significant amount of young children who struggle with their language development. Therefore it is important to learn more about factors that play an important part in this development. Especially at the young age of this research population, where prevention can still make a big difference in the children’s school carrier.

The results revealed that most variance in language development can be explained by the control variables: age, type of provision and the language spoken at home. There is no significant contribution of the language stimulating interactions in the first model, and the provision of language in the second model. This was not expected based on the literature study.

The moderation effect of the self confidence does not show a significant contribution to the language development of the young children either. However, self confidence as a single variable does appear to have a significant relationship. The role of self confidence therefore seems to play a role in the language development of young children. More research is necessarily to state actual conclusions about this.