Associations of Specific Indicators of Adult–Child Interaction Quality and Child Language Outcomes: What Teaching Practices Influence Language?

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: This study aims to extend our knowledge regarding contributions of educator–child interactions to child language outcomes by examining the extent to which specific dimensions of the CLASS observational tool of educator–child interactions are associated with child language abilities, utilizing data from an Australian longitudinal study of over 2,000 children attending formal Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The analysis included a novel measurement model fitted to the data to allow each CLASS dimension to be modeled separately. Results showed that each CLASS dimension was associated with initial average language abilities. Small, negative effects of Emotional Support dimensions on growth of children’s average Understanding Directions score were found, but there were no associations between any of the dimensions and average growth in Verbal Ability. None of the Instructional Support dimensions (which are language focused) predicted growth in language abilities. These null findings are addressed in the discussion. Practice or Policy: Findings from this study illustrate that, typically, ECEC programs rate low on dimensions of quality developed to capture language-promoting educator–child interactions. Findings also suggest a selection effect related to equity of access to classroom quality with children with the highest initial language abilities in the highest quality classrooms.

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge and express their gratitude to all those involved in the E4Kids study. E4Kids was a project of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and was conducted in partnership with Queensland University of Technology. E4Kids was funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Projects Scheme (LP0990200), the Victorian Government Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, and the Queensland Government Department of Education and Training. E4Kids was conducted in academic collaboration with the University of Toronto Scarborough, the Institute of Education at the University of London and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2023.2193857

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.