Hannah Stark

Learning Together: a Participatory Evaluation of the Learning Language and Loving It™ Program in an Aboriginal Community-Led Kindergarten - Early Childhood Education Journal High-quality early childhood education requires ongoing professional learning for educators, yet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators face barriers to accessing culturally responsive profes...

New open access paper: idp.springer.com/authorize?re...

Teachers’ perspectives of speech language pathology reports for students with communication needs Written reports act as a communication tool between speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and teachers of students with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) in Australian schools. In this ...

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Klieve, S., & @hannahstark.bsky.social Stark, H. (2025). Teachers’ perspectives of speech language pathology reports for students with communication needs. Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology, 27(1), 112–130. doi.org/10.1080/2200...
🦋 #bskySPEECHIES

I’m looking forward to reading this!

@cristina-mckean.bsky.social I’ve sent you an email 🚎

Promoting early language learning in early childhood education: Reliability and validity of an educator version of the Parental Responsiveness Rating Scale (PaRRiS) : Find an Expert : The University of Melbourne <p> The goal of this project is to determine the reliability, validity and usability of a brief observational measure of educator responsiveness. Language is a super skill that plays a vital role in cognitive, social, emotional and academic growth. Unfortunately, one in five children have low language skills before they start school, and the prevalence of language difficulties are even higher for children from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. These inequalities in language are also likely to increase over time. </p> <p> One way to address language inequalities is by promoting responsive early language environments, ensuring all children have the opportunity to develop strong language skills, regardless of their background or circumstances. Outside a child’s home, early childhood educators play a critical role in supporting early language development. Responsive and sensitive educator-child interactions can improve child language outcomes. However, research shows that educators can often lack the necessary skills to support language learning in very young children (aged 0-3 years). There is also a lack of research on how to effectively support young children’s language learning in early childhood education and care settings. One approach to addressing these issues is to create reliable tools to help educators adapt their practices and increase their use of language-promoting strategies to support children’s language learning. Although some tools exist for this purpose, they are often time consuming and expensive. Research shows that parent responsiveness, which can be measured using a brief observational tool called the Parental Responsiveness Rating Scale (PaRRiS), predicts child language outcomes. The PaRRiS is a widely-used, reliable and valid measure of parental responsiveness. The PaRRiS tool has the potential to provide educators with a cost-effective and efficient way of assessing their responsiveness during interactions with children. If demonstrated to be reliable, valid and usable in ECEC settings, an educator version of the PaRRiS tool could assist educators to evaluate and enhance their own practices via language-promoting interactions with those children they work with. </p> <p> This project will involve the collection of naturalistic observations of interactions between educators and children aged 2-3 years, and the rating of these observations using an educator version of the PaRRiS. The proposed research question is: What is the reliability, validity and usability of the PaRRiS-E (Parental Responsiveness Rating Scale - Educator version) as a measure of educator responsiveness? </p> <p> The successful candidate will gain research experience in conducting observation and analysis by collecting video observations from natural settings (home and early childhood education and care) and rating the video observations using the Parental Responsiveness Rating Scale (PaRRiS) and PaRRiS-E (educator version). They will also gain experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methods. </p>

Applications for our Melbourne-Manchester **funded** PhD project about language learning in ECEC are still open

findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/opportunity/...

The Early Language in Victoria Study is 21!! 🎉

Please join my University of Melbourne colleagues for the upcoming symposium: “The Early Language in Victoria Study: Reflections and Policy Impacts over 21 years”.

14th March 10:30am – 3:30pm AEDT. 

www.eventbrite.com.au/e/elvs-resea...

Reach out to Dr Penny Levickis or myself if you’d like to notes more - details in the link above.

Promoting early language learning in early childhood education: Reliability and validity of an educator version of the Parental Responsiveness Rating Scale (PaRRiS) : Find an Expert : The University of Melbourne <p> The goal of this project is to determine the reliability, validity and usability of a brief observational measure of educator responsiveness. Language is a super skill that plays a vital role in cognitive, social, emotional and academic growth. Unfortunately, one in five children have low language skills before they start school, and the prevalence of language difficulties are even higher for children from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. These inequalities in language are also likely to increase over time. </p> <p> One way to address language inequalities is by promoting responsive early language environments, ensuring all children have the opportunity to develop strong language skills, regardless of their background or circumstances. Outside a child’s home, early childhood educators play a critical role in supporting early language development. Responsive and sensitive educator-child interactions can improve child language outcomes. However, research shows that educators can often lack the necessary skills to support language learning in very young children (aged 0-3 years). There is also a lack of research on how to effectively support young children’s language learning in early childhood education and care settings. One approach to addressing these issues is to create reliable tools to help educators adapt their practices and increase their use of language-promoting strategies to support children’s language learning. Although some tools exist for this purpose, they are often time consuming and expensive. Research shows that parent responsiveness, which can be measured using a brief observational tool called the Parental Responsiveness Rating Scale (PaRRiS), predicts child language outcomes. The PaRRiS is a widely-used, reliable and valid measure of parental responsiveness. The PaRRiS tool has the potential to provide educators with a cost-effective and efficient way of assessing their responsiveness during interactions with children. If demonstrated to be reliable, valid and usable in ECEC settings, an educator version of the PaRRiS tool could assist educators to evaluate and enhance their own practices via language-promoting interactions with those children they work with. </p> <p> This project will involve the collection of naturalistic observations of interactions between educators and children aged 2-3 years, and the rating of these observations using an educator version of the PaRRiS. The proposed research question is: What is the reliability, validity and usability of the PaRRiS-E (Parental Responsiveness Rating Scale - Educator version) as a measure of educator responsiveness? </p> <p> The successful candidate will gain research experience in conducting observation and analysis by collecting video observations from natural settings (home and early childhood education and care) and rating the video observations using the Parental Responsiveness Rating Scale (PaRRiS) and PaRRiS-E (educator version). They will also gain experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methods. </p>

Exciting Dual-Award PhD Opportunity in early language learning at the University of Melbourne and The University of Manchester
findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/opportunity/...

Integrated Measure of PRogram Element SuStainability in Childcare Settings (IMPRESS-C): development and psychometric evaluation of a measure of sustainability determinants in the early childhood educa... Background There is a need for valid and reliable measures of determinants of sustainability of public health interventions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. This study aimed to d...

Very excited to come across the IMPRESS-C, an Australian intervention sustainability measure that is validated and designed for early childhood settings implementationscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Hi @suze-freogirl.bsky.social 👋 Steph Weir and I have been interviewing SLPs about assessment and neurodiversity affirming practice. Work still underway, but lots of second guessing when using approaches other than standardised ax. Language shift definitely would help.