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Center of Everyday Child Language Learning

Welcome to the Center on Everyday Child Language Learning (CECLL). CECLL was a model demonstration center funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. The main goal of CECLL was to implement and evaluate an approach to early childhood communication intervention that used everyday activities as sources of learning opportunities to promote the development of the language and communcation skills of young children with disabilities and delays. CECLL was a major initiative of the Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute.

The Center of Everyday Child Language Learning worked with early intervention providers and practitioners in Delaware, North Carolina, and Tennessee to promote the use of child language learning practices and to evaluate the effectiveness of the practices. Practitioners and parents worked together to find the very best child language learning opportunities as part of everyday life.

CECLL Framework: Caregiver Everyday Language Intervention Model

The project model was designed to identify child interests, the everyday activities that are contexts of interest-based learning, increased child participation in interest-based activities, and caregivers� promotion of child communication and language development in the contexts of the everyday activities. A unique feature of the model is the use of children�s interests (likes, preferences, favorites, etc.) as a foundation for promoting their acquisition of functional and meaningful communication and language skills.

Mediated Instructional Practices chart Communication and language skills Language and communication development Mediated instructional practices Child Interests Everyday activities

Everyday activities that make up family and community life that well suited for early communication and language learning. They include such things as dressing and undressing, eating meals, taking care of pets, rough housing, lap games, parent/child play episodes, eating out, neighborhood walks, library story time hours, play groups, feeding ducks or fish at the community pond, and so forth.

 

Child Interests include the likes, preferences, favorites, strengths, assets, etc. that motivate children to participate in desired activities that let them express their interests and abilities. Interests can be either personal or situational.
Personal interests are a child�s personal or individual likes, preferences, favorites, and strengths that encourage the child to continue participating in an activity. Situational interests are social and nonsocial aspects of the environment that attract children�s attention, curiosity, and engage them in interactions with people and objects.

 

Communication and language skills include the non-verbal and verbal behaviors that young children use to communicate with others. Examples include vocalizations, gestures, facial expressions, verbalizations, words, and other forms of communication (e.g., sign language).

 

Language and communication development is enhanced if children have many opportunities to participate in different kinds of interest-based everyday activities. Child communication and language learning are increased both by participation in different kinds of interest-based everyday activity and by the number of learning opportunities they have within any one activity.

 

Mediated instructional practices involve using evidence-based responsive strategies to respond to children in ways that elicit children�s on-going engagement in everyday interest-based activities and that promote their communication and language learning.

 

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Center Reports & Tools

 

Everyday Child Language Learning Reports include descriptions of the language learning intervention model used by Center for Everday Child Language Learning staff and reseach syntheses of studies of practices that are key features of the Center's intervention model.

 
mother reading to son using audio amplifier

Caregiver-Mediated Everyday Child Language Learning Practices: I. Background and Foundations
Everyday Child Language Learning Reports, 2013, Number 1. This paper includes a description of the communication and language intervention model developed at the Center on Everyday Child Language Learning and used to support parents' adoption of the approach to everyday communication and language learning as part of young children's participation in family and community activities.

Caregiver-Mediated Everyday Child Language Learning Practices: II. Intervention Methods and Procedures
Everyday Child Language Learning Reports, 2013, Number 2. This paper includes a description of the methods and procedures for implementing the communication and language intervention model developed by staff at the Center on Everyday Child Language Learning.


Adult Learning Procedure for Promoting Caregiver Use of Everyday Child Language Learning Practices
Everyday Child Language Learning Reports, 2013, Number 3. This paper includes a description of the approach to professional development used by Center on Everyday Child Language Learning staff to enhance early childhood intervention practitioners’ abilities to promote parents’ adoption and use of interest-based everyday child language learning intervention practices.

Influences of a Responsive Interactional Style on Young Children's Language Acquisition
Everyday Child Language Learning Reports, 2013, Number 4. The relationships between the characteristics of a responsive interactional style and young children’s communication and language abilities were the focus of the research synthesis described in this paper.

Relationships Between Young Children's Interests and Early Language Learning
Everyday Child Language Learning Reports, 2013, Number 5. This paper includes a research synthesis of 41 studies that examined the relationships between different types of child interests and children’s early communication and language development.

Everyday Activities as Sources of Language Learning Opportunities for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
Everyday Child Language Learning Reports, 2013, Number 6. This paper includes a research synthesis of 26 studies that examined the relationships between child participation in everyday family and community activities and the children’s expressive and receptive language.

Methods for Increasing Child Participation in Everyday Learning Opportunities
Everyday Child Language Learning Reports, 2013, Number 7. This paper includes a research synthesis of 14 studies that examined the relationships between two different methods of increasing child participation in everyday learning activities.

Everyday Child Language Tools include the methods and procedures practitioners and parents can use to implement the Center on Everyday Child Language Learning intervention model and practices.  

mother reading to son using audio amplifier


 

Step-by-Step Guide for Providing Young Children Everyday Language Learning Opportunities
Everyday Child Language Learning Tools, 2013, Number 1.

Identifying Interest-Based Everyday Activities for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
Everyday Child Language Learning Tools, 2013, Number 2.

Checklist and Guidelines for Identifying Young Children's Interests
Everyday Child Language Learning Tools, 2013, Number 3.

Methods for Increasing Child Participation in Interest-Based Language Learning Activities
Everyday Child Language Learning Tools, 2013, Number 4.

Getting in Step with Responsive Teaching
Everyday Child Language Learning Tools, 2013, Number 5.

Recipes for Success: Active Ingredients for Promoting a Parent's Use of Everyday Child Language Learning Practices
Everyday Child Language Learning Tools, 2013, Number 6.

Checklists for Promoting the Use of Everyday Child Language Learning Activities
Everyday Child Language Learning Tools, 2013, Number 7.




Funded by the
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.