Vi lærer sprog i vuggestuen og dagplejen. En målrettet og struktureret indsats, som virker ved at styrke læringsmiljøet for de yngste

The report presents the results from the research project called We Are Learning Language in Nursery and Daycare. The project targeted the youngest children in 13 Danish municipalities and introduced various measures to strengthen the learning environment and the pedagogical practice in kindergartens in order to better support children’s language, mathematical understanding and executive functions. The various measures included both kindergarten employees (basic intervention) and parents (intensive parental involvement). The report answers five research questions: 1) Are children’s language, mathematical understanding and executive development strengthened? 2) To what extent is the general learning environment in kindergartens (ECEC) strengthened? 3) How is the basic intervention implemented and what type of factors are important for the implementation? 4) To what extent has intensive parental involvement strengthened children’s learning beyond the potential outcomes of the basic intervention? 5) To what extent is intensive parental involvement implemented, and what type of factors are important for the implementation?

The results show that the basic intervention strengthened the children’s language development, numeracy and empathy. The basic intervention had a significant positive effect on the children’s vocabulary and numeracy. The children in the intervention groups received between 9 and 44 percent extra learning in these areas compared to the children in the control group. Gender, age, ethnicity or social conditions in the home did not affect the children’s outcomes. The analysis also shows that the more activities the child participated in, the better the child’s language skills and numeracy. In addition, the second time the children participated (second period), their language was improved. The intervention work strengthened the pedagogical practice in the kindergartens, and the staff had a positive experience of the work. The results from the parental involvement showed that the more the parents participated in the intervention, the greater the effect on the children’s skills. When the parents participated fully in all activities, the effects were significantly greater than the effects produced by the basic intervention. There was also a systematic tendency for children of non-Danish origin to achieve greater effects on language skills when their parents participated actively.                                 

Approximately 3000 children (3000 children in the first period of the project and 2400 children in the second period) from 257 kindergartens participated in the project’s two periods from 2016 to 2018. Through a randomised controlled trial, the kindergartens were divided into three different groups, where group 1 served as a control group, group 2 received the basic intervention in both periods, and group 3 received the basic intervention in the first period followed by the basic intervention in addition to intensive parental involvement in the second period. The basic intervention consisted of a topic-based intervention over the course of 20 weeks in which the staff were given tools to create supportive and engaging learning environments to strengthen the children’s well-being, development, learning and formation. The intensive parental involvement targeted the parents of children with weak language skills. The effects on children’s language, mathematical understanding, executive functions and socioemotional skills were investigated by comparing the children’s scores in the different groups before and after the interventions.

Bleses, D., Højen, A., Jensen, P., Rathe, A. B., Boisen, L. A., Nielsen, H. & Jensen, C. H. (2019). «Vi lærer sprog i vuggestuen og dagplejen. En målrettet og struktureret indsats, som virker ved at styrke læringsmiljøet for de yngste.». Rapport. Børne- og Socialministeriet.