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Background: Early childhood teachers (ECTs) play a significant role in equipping children with oral language and emergent literacy skills ahead of school entry. They are well positioned to play a vital role in ensuring preschool children receive a high‐quality preschool curriculum to prepare them for later literacy learning. Aims: The purpose of this study was to explore early career ECTs' views and confidence regarding their role in providing preschoolers with oral language and emergent literacy support and to examine their perceptions of their preservice preparation. Methods & Procedures: Nine Australian early career ECTs were recruited via purposive sampling for an in‐depth, semi‐structured interview. Data were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. Outcomes & Results: Participants attached strong significance to their role in facilitating children's oral language growth and emergent literacy skills and reported a range of practices to support children's learning. However, they rarely referred to using established language facilitation strategies or using dialogic book reading prompts. Further, emergent literacy concepts such as phonological awareness and print awareness were not routinely described as features of participants' classroom activities. Participants did not consistently make a clear conceptual distinction between the constructs of oral language and emergent literacy and often used these terms interchangeably. Notably, participants indicated that they did not feel confident in their ability to identify preschool children who were not meeting developmental language milestones and reported that they felt poorly equipped to do so by their preservice training. Conclusions & Implications: ECTs' strong willingness to support preschool children's oral language and emergent literacy skills may be hindered by gaps in their knowledge; these may contribute to important and missed opportunities for identifying and supporting preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy growth. What this paper adds: What is already known on this subject?: High‐quality learning experiences in preschool are important for maximising preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy growth. Early childhood teachers can play an important role in facilitating this development and preparing children for later literacy learning. What this paper adds to existing knowledge?: The study findings provide insight into ECTs' perceptions of their role and support in developing children's oral language and emergent literacy skills. The results indicated ECTs did not feel confident with their knowledge of children's language milestones or identifying children with language difficulties. Participants reported that their preservice training left them underprepared in the area of oral language. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: ECTs demonstrated a strong willingness to support preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy skills. However, their self‐reported knowledge gaps and low confidence may have implications for the early detection of children who are not reaching language developmental milestones in a timely way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Within Australia, the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme has led to a growth in paediatric occupational therapists working in community settings. This growth has increased the demand for support from more senior paediatric occupational therapists to novice clinicians. Mentoring has long been valued by occupational therapists as a means to provide this support. Despite its apparent benefit, there is limited research on the contribution of mentoring as distinct from supervision, and its impact on mentees' skills and confidence in providing care. This study examined the contribution of mentorship to the development of professional capability in paediatric occupational therapy practice from the perspective of mentors and mentees. Methods: Interpretive description methodology was used. In‐depth interviews were conducted with nine mentors and eight mentees from three Australian states. Data were analysed inductively and thematically. Findings: All participants reflected on the challenges presented by the complexity of practice, requiring a knowledge base that mentees perceived they did not possess. The essential nature of non‐judgemental, emotional support allowed mentees to feel safe to discuss their concerns when they were often overwhelmed by practice. Mentorship was viewed as capacity building, building competence by scaffolding clinical reasoning and supporting theory to practice translation while developing resilience to cope with complexity. Conclusion: Study participants reported that successful mentorship assisted novice practitioners to integrate knowledge and skills required for complex clinical and professional reasoning. The emotional support provided through the relationship supported novice therapists to build their confidence and resilience while promoting professional identity and socialisation into the profession. The study raised questions related to how the profession best supports novice paediatric therapists in the current employment contexts, and the need to review how bodies of knowledge relevant to paediatrics are brought together to be used by both novice clinicians and senior therapists, who support them, for translation to effective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]