Early Childhood Teacher Training Improves Toddlers' Oral Language and Self-Regulation

Children’s oral language and self-regulation skills are critical for healthy development andlife trajectories. ENRICH is a preventive intervention developed for early childhood teachersto enhance these skills in toddlers. Kia Tīmata Pai (Best Start study) is a longitudinal clusterrandomized controlled trial in 136 New Zealand early childhood education centers testing theimpact of ENRICH with 1875 teachers on 1481 toddlers’ (M = 20.6 months at recruitment;72% European, 24% Māori, 23% Asian, 9% Pacific using a total response method; 7% low-SES, 40% middle-SES, 53% high-SES) oral language and self-regulation skills. After 18months, ENRICH produced benefits for children’s oral language and self-regulation skills(parent and teacher ratings) and for early literacy and social skills (teacher ratings) comparedto an active control condition. Oral language benefits (parent ratings) emerged earlier forchildren from low- and mid-socioeconomic (SES) families and whose mothers had lowereducational qualifications. Benefits for oral language and self-regulation skills at age 3 heldregardless of children’s SES, ethnicity, bilingual status, initial language level, age, andmaternal education. Benefits for oral language at age 3 were moderated by child gender anddiffered by respondent, with teachers perceiving greater ENRICH benefits for boys, andparents for girls. The likely mechanism of ENRICH’s effects is through sensitive serve-andreturninteractions that support children’s oral language and attention skills. ENRICH is apotentially powerful tool for supporting toddlers’ language, cognitive, and socioemotionaldevelopment with possible downstream effects for academic achievement, health, and wellbeing.