Enhancing expressive communication and language development in French minority daycares: The impact of parental awareness and educator professional development training

Abstract

French-speaking children in Ontario minority-language settings face unique language development challenges, as over half of children in French-daycares are either anglophone or have limited French skills. This quasi-experimental study investigated whether a combination of professional development training for educators and parental awareness initiatives improves French language development in minority-language daycares. The study involved 23 educators and 34 children (18 in the experimental group, 16 in the control group), aged 18-48 months, across eleven centres managed by the Carrefour francophone de Sudbury. The experimental group received four months of training on 25 language stimulation strategies and digital resources for families. Children in this group showed significantly greater gains in French language skills (median difference of 20.93 vs. 4.20 points on the Language Use Inventory), with an increase of 11.7 hours of French exposure weekly. Qualitative feedback indicated that 85.7% of parents noticed improvements in their children's vocabulary and communication skills. However, 57% of parents faced communication barriers with resources, and the small sample size limits the ability to generalize the findings. Overall, the combined intervention effectively supported French expressive language development by addressing both daycare and home environments.