26 February 2013

Collaboration seeks to aid language development in children

Psychologists from the University of Dundee are collaborating with Fife Education and Learning Service to develop novel ways of identifying young children whose language and general development would benefit from early intervention.

The initiative aims to build on current best practice to develop assessments based around existing nursery activities for children aged 0-5.

In the pilot phase of this research project, students studying on the MSc in Developmental Psychology have worked with nursery staff at schools throughout Fife. This has enabled the students to gain a better understanding of the real world challenges surrounding the assessment of early language and cognitive skills.

The students are working with nursery staff to enhance techniques for identifying children with delayed language development. The methods that emerge from this collaboration will then be adopted by Fife Education and Learning Service to ensure that nursery education in the Kingdom best meets the needs of all children.

The students use techniques including observation, structured interviews and case studies to develop an evidence-based but naturalistic framework for identifying language development milestones.

Central to this process are workshops involving nursery, education and academic staff where ideas and findings can be shared in order to plan the next stage of the research.

Dr Lynne Duncan, an expert in child language development, is leading the Dundee contribution to the project. She says that being able to assess a child's development in a natural setting is highly beneficial.

"Building the assessment around activities that the child enjoys enables us to observe key characteristics of their development in a familiar and relaxed setting," she said.

"We hope the new methods will be more sensitive, more fun and more effective than current approaches. We also hope that this will raise awareness of the role that parents and carers can play in supporting children's language development."

"Early intervention benefits children throughout their lives and Fife already has a range of interventions in place. The aim of this new initiative is to try to ensure that these valuable resources are channelled most effectively."

The project was instigated by Bryan Kirkaldy, Head of Education Services in Fife and Dr Douglas Potter, School of Psychology, with the support of Area Depute Principal Psychologist, Elly Alexander, and Manager of Nursery Provision, Jane Mason.

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