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Children facing adversity are at greater risk of experiencing language difficulties than their peers. This study aims to examine the association between specific maternal responsive behaviours at 24 months and language outcomes at the age of 5 years in a cohort of mothers and children facing adversity. Mother-child dyads (n = 138) facing adversity were observed and videoed at home at 24 months in mother-child free play. Four maternal responsive behaviours were coded from these videos: imitations, responsive questions, labels, and expansions. Child language was assessed using the CELF-4 at the age of 5 years. Linear regression was used to examine associations, in both adjusted and unadjusted models. In unadjusted models, imitations, responsive questions, and labels predicted better child language scores at age 5. Imitations continued to positively predict language scores after adjusting for confounding factors, including earlier communication skills. Findings demonstrate the importance of considering maternal responsive behaviours with respect to stages of child development.

The task of English language and literacy education to define citizenship, and shape citizens, has rarely been more compelling or more challenging than it is today. Globally and nationally, our civic response to COVID-19 has catapulted us into a world where our rights as and responsibilities as citizens are being fundamentally re-negotiated at the same time as we come to rely on technologically mediated literate practice to connect a world that is more spatially and temporally separated than many of us have ever known it to be. We are challenged to remake our identities and commit to new kinds of personal and civic relationships--nationally and globally--as we try to navigate uncharted waters. Our focus here is on the role that literacy education plays in understanding and defining active citizenship in a turbulent context in which foundational literacy practices are transforming just as accepted understandings of active citizenship are under challenge. We direct our attention specifically to the distinctive role that literacy practice plays in the production of identities and relationships and consider new ways for literacy education to build active citizenship across the lifespan from early education through primary and secondary education through to workforce education. Keywords Literacy * Citizenship * Technology * School English * Life course education, 1 Introduction Australia's civic response to the COVID-19 virus has propelled us into a world that relies on technologically mediated literate practice to an extent that we could not have [...]

New approaches to support the early learning for young Indigenous children are important to government policies across Australia. This study explores whether the Abecedarian Approach Australia (3a) intervention, with strong cultural adaptations, can boost young Aboriginal children's early language and learning skills, prior to preschool. Participants in this study were Aboriginal children attending playgroups, "Families as First Teachers," in school settings in two remote communities in the Northern Territory. Implementation data on two components (Conversational Reading and LearningGames) of the Abecedarian Approach Australia (3"a") intervention are reported, and the level of exposure the children had to the programme during the study period is analysed. Child outcomes were assessed on the Brigance Early Childhood Screen II for 149 children aged from 24 to 56 months. Children's language and early learning were associated with intervention dosage. Higher exposure to Conversational Reading and LearningGames predicted stronger language and overall development for young children. This study demonstrates that this intervention can be delivered effectively in playgroups in remote settings and is a meaningful and robust strategy to support early childhood learning, with potential to improve educational outcomes for young Aboriginal children in remote communities.

Background: Variations in parenting, more specifically less responsive and more directive parenting, contribute to language difficulties for children experiencing adversity. Further investigation of associations between specific responsive and directive behaviours and child language is required to understand how behaviours shape language over time within different populations. As language is dyadic, further exploration of how mother-child interactions moderate associations is also important. Aims: To investigate associations between specific responsive and directive maternal behaviours, the quality of mother-child interaction (fluency and connectedness) and child language in a cohort experiencing adversity. Methods & Procedures: Pregnant women experiencing adversity were recruited from maternity hospitals in Australia. At 12 months, videos of mother-infant free play were collected. Videos were coded for maternal behaviours and fluency and connectedness (n = 249). At 36 months, child language was measured using a standardized language test. Linear regression models were used to examine associations and the moderating role of fluency and connectedness was explored. Outcomes & Results: Responsive yes/no questions were positively associated with language scores. Unsuccessful redirectives were negatively associated with language scores. The moderation effect of fluency and connectedness was equivocal in the current data. Conclusions & Implications: Findings reproduce and extend previous research highlighting key features of mother-child interactions associated with child language trajectories. Findings also augment knowledge of risk and protective factors related to language for children experiencing adversity and highlight where targeted interventions might be successful.

Background: Parent-reported measures of early communication have limitations for use with infants experiencing adversity. Observational measures of early non-verbal and verbal communicative behaviours and mother-child turn-taking may provide a complementary method of capturing early communication skills for these children. Aims: To explore the predictive validity of verbal and non-verbal behaviours and mother-child conversational turn-taking (fluency and connectedness) at child age 12 months in relation to language measures at 24 and 36 months in a cohort of infants experiencing adversity. Methods & Procedures: Pregnant women experiencing adversity were recruited from maternity hospitals in Australia. At 12 months, 190 infants were videoed during mother-child free-play. Verbal and non-verbal communicative behaviours and fluency and connectedness were measured from the 12-month videos. Predictive validity of 12-month behaviours was calculated in relation to mean length of utterance and number of unique words at 24 months and Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool--Second Edition (CELF-P2) Core Language scores at 36 months. Outcomes & Results: All 12-month behaviours had adequate specificity but poor sensitivity when compared with other predictive validity studies using published early language measures. However, in adjusted regression models, fluency and connectedness and verbal behaviours at 12 months predicted unique words at 24 months. Fluency and connectedness also predicted CELF-P2 scores at 36 months. Conclusions & Implications: Findings reconfirm the difficulty in early identification of children at risk of later language difficulties. All 12-month measures were more accurate at identifying those children who will have better language than those children who will not. As fluency and connectedness was the only measure to predict 24- and 36-month language in adjusted regression models, it may be an important factor to consider when measuring early language skills for infants experiencing adversity. Future research could combine observational measures of early communication and fluency and connectedness with other predictors of language to try to increase prediction accuracy.

In this paper, we report the initial stages of Response to Intervention (RTI) implementation in one school that participated in the Getting it Right from the Start (GIRFTS) pilot study. Implementation of an RTI framework for oral language and reading was supported by teacher professional learning and a dedicated Implementation Support Partner (ISP). Participants were interviewed to explore their perceptions of the change process and identify barriers and enablers to implementation. Thematic analysis was used to identify factors that supported the implementation of RTI, including strategic collegial relationships, teacher motivation, and a desire to achieve consistency of assessment and instruction. The ISP was seen as a crucial coaching role for keeping implementation on track, providing feedback and advice, and helping teachers translate professional learning into their school context. This study highlights some key factors that schools and policy-makers should focus on to promote successful early implementation of RTI approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child-friendly cities are places that support opportunities for children's play and community connection in safe urban environments. A dominant practice in urban planning and design has been to separate people and their activities spatially (i.e., residential zones, learning zones, play zones) and this coincided with the remaking of cities around private vehicular travel which together necessitated carving out safe spaces for children play. This has meant that children's play has been geared towards permanent equipment in fenced-off playgrounds or more formal educational settings. However, the inclusion of temporary play spaces in cities to support community engagement in the local environment is growing to combine urban design, play and community wellbeing initiatives. This paper documents the experiences of stakeholders of a temporary play space in an inner-city suburb of an Australian city. This work includes key perspectives of the architects and designers and local council members to evaluate how a 12-week activation of a temporary play space came into being and what can be learnt from this collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary describes the economic disempowerment of children with communication and/or swallowing disability and outlines why attending to their economic and social needs is essential for the realisation of the United Nations' Agenda 2030. Children with communication and/or swallowing disability encounter intersectional disempowerment on account of both their disability, and their status as children. In particular, they experience unique barriers to the realisation of their economic and social rights. This presents a number of challenges to the realisation of Agenda 2030, and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Drawing on the broader disability rights and child rights literature, we outline these issues, and describe four empowering solutions, within the scope of this special issue commentary. We describe that speech-language pathologists must interpret the discussion of these issues as a call to action for our profession. This commentary focusses on the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals of, No Poverty (SDG 1), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), and Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), and also addresses the goals of Zero Hunger (SDG 2), Good Health and Well-Being (SDG 3), Quality Education (SDG 4), Gender Equality (SDG 5) and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums provide rich multimodal learning opportunities and long‐lasting memories for children and teachers who participate in museum excursions and outreach programs. Museum programs for preschool children embed hands‐on opportunities to engage children with new and diverse artefacts. Interactions in museum settings provide opportunities for adults and children to collaborate in learning. Our aim in this project was to explore the elements of museum programs that prove essential in engaging young children in museum education programs. Five museum presenters and 14 early childhood groups (14 teachers and 296 children) participated in the research project. Data collection included audio recordings of museum presentations, observations of child‐teacher interactions, multiliteracy observations, teacher interviews, and written reflections from the museum presenters. Coding across all datasets contributed to the five main themes in the findings, which we detail using the acronym LEARN: Learning artefacts; Embodied teaching and learning; Asking questions; Repetition: and Narrative. Multiple elements of museum education programs influence learning opportunities for young children. Both structural elements (e.g. designing a core narrative around concepts, or time for children's individual queries during the program and hands‐on explorations with museum artefacts) and learning interactions (e.g. conversations where children and adults collaborate) contribute to engaging museum education programs for young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Evidence suggests that children living in adversity are at greater risk of poorer language than their peers with the quality of parental interactions potentially mediating this association. Studies typically measure the mediatory impact of generic interaction styles making it difficult to discern which particular aspects of the interaction are facilitating language. This study aims to bridge this gap by identifying specific maternal behaviours associated with concurrent infant communication, in a cohort of 12-month old infants and their mothers experiencing adversity. Method: A total of 249 mother-infant free-play videos were collected from women experiencing adversity in Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. From those videos, specific maternal behaviours, infant communication acts and the interaction quality were coded. Result: Maternal verbal imitations uniquely predicted concurrent use of infant vocalisations, total words and unique words. Furthermore, the more fluent and connected the mother-infant dyad, the stronger the association between imitations and all three infant measures. Conclusion: Frequent use of maternal imitations, within highly connected mother-infant dyads, may help mediate the impact of adversity on early communication. This information is important for early years professionals working with at-risk populations in augmenting current knowledge of risk and protective factors related to early language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variations in parenting have been suggested as contributing to a higher prevalence of language difficulties in children experiencing economic, environmental, and social adversity. Within these cohorts, the contribution of responsive and intrusive parenting to child language has been investigated; s pecific responsive and intrusive behaviors encapsulated within these parenting styles have yet to be fully examined. Additionally, the role of the mother-child dynamic in moderating mother-child associations has also not been explored. This study aimed to augment current research by identifying specific responsive and intrusive maternal behaviors associated with child language in a cohort experiencing adversity, as well as exploring the role of the fluency and connectedness of mother-child conversation in moderating associations ( n = 249). Specific behaviors and the fluency and connectedness of the mother-child interaction were coded from free-play videos at child age 12 months. Child language measures were derived from transcripts of free play at 24 months. Linear regression models were used to examine maternal-child associations. The moderating role of fluency and connectedness was then explored. Maternal imitations were positively associated with the child's total words; successful redirectives were negatively associated with the child's mean length of turn. Both associations were moderated by the fluency and connectedness of the interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]