The project model is 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.
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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.
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.
