TRIO – Language Education in Early Child Care Centers

The project TRIO aimed at improving kindergarten and primary school teachers’ competence in providing language support to children. This way it  contributed to a better quality of language education for young children. It comprised a joint training programme for kindergarten and primary school teachers. The programme focused on two aspects (1) language support in everyday settings, and (2) language support in small-groups for children with specific language needs. In both cases the target groups were children between the ages of four, five and seven. In addition to the training programme, participating educators and teachers attended in individual coaching sessions. The effectiveness of the programme were evaluated by assessing changes in competence of educators and teachers and by tracking the language development of the children.

• How can language support in everyday settings and in small groups be successfully implemented into practice?
• Does the training programme improve educators’ and teachers’ competence to offer language support to preschool children?
• Does the training of educators and teachers have positive effects for children’s language development?
• Is this effect strongest for children who acquire German as a second language?

• Goethe-University Frankfurt, Pedagogy of Elementary and Primary Schools and Psycholinguistics and Didactics
• State-federal Initiative “Bildung durch Sprache und Schrift” (“Education through Language and Literacy”)
• Dr. Julia Kerner auch Körner at the Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg

• Prof. Dr. Janin Brandenburg
• Prof. Dr. Jan-Henning Ehm
• Dr. Sabrina Geyer
• Rabea Schwarze