• Educator-child interactions video-recorded and coded across ECE activity settings. • Conversation-eliciting talk over time favored ENRICH over control centers. • Children's talk during book-reading also favored ENRICH centers. • Findings highlight PD's potential to enhance educator and child language in ECE. This study investigates the impact of a professional development (PD) initiative, ENRICH, on educator and toddler language quality and quantity. Data comes from a larger cluster randomized controlled trial, Kia Tīmata Pai (Best Start) , aimed at enhancing young children’s language and self-regulation. A subset of 24 centers (110 educators and 183 children) took part in video observations at baseline and a one-year follow-up. Educator-child interactions were video-recorded across five target activity settings: book-reading, group, diapering/toileting, play, and mealtime. Educators’ child-directed talk was coded for temporal reference (past, present, future) and function (conversation-eliciting and conversation-directing utterances). Analyses at the center level showed significant differences in educators' conversation-eliciting talk over time in book-reading and diapering/toileting favoring ENRICH centers, with a similar pattern for children's total talk during book-reading. These findings highlight the potential impact of professional development programs, such as ENRICH, to enhance both educator practices and child language use within early childhood education and care settings.
Swearingen et al. (2026) studied this question.