Universities and Colleges

Learning Language and Loving It Program

Learning Language and Loving It™ has been integrated into the early childhood education curriculum of a number of colleges and universities around the world. Learning Language and Loving It Programs can be delivered to students by Hanen certified speech-language pathologists in the community who are either contracted by the college/university or are able to providing student training as part of their service delivery mandate.

Since 2004, our train-the-trainer model has expanded to include early childhood education professionals as well as speech-language pathologists. As a result, college/university faculty have been licensed as Learning Language and Loving It Program Leaders and are able to offer the Learning Language and Loving It Program within their own institutions.

There are a variety of flexible options for the delivery of the Learning Language and Loving It Program to students:

• A selected number of students with a particular interest in language development and emerging literacy participate in the program as an optional elective
• Instructors provide the program throughout an academic year by incorporating group sessions into exiting courses, such as courses on language development, special needs, emerging literacy.
• Videotaping and feedback sessions, which are part of Learning Language and Loving It Programs, are coordinated with practicum experiences
• Early childhood education professionals access the Learning Language and Loving It Program through an advanced studies course

For articles written by instructors who have implemented Learning Language and Loving It in their college/university curriculum, click here.

Learning Language and Loving It Resources

Instructors integrate Learning Language and Loving It resources have into college training programs in a variety of ways, including:

• Using the guidebook Learning Language and Loving It: A Guide to Promoting Children’s Social and Language Development in Early Childhood Settings (Weitzman & Greenberg, 2002) or the Teacher Talk Workbooks as texts for courses on language and literacy development.
• Using the Learning Language and Loving It Teaching Tape/DVD to provide realistic examples of educators applying responsive interaction strategies in a variety of early childhood classroom activities. The Teaching Tape/DVD is accompanied by a detailed User’s Guide that provides descriptions of the 128 examples along with video transcripts and suggested questions to encourage classroom discussion.
• Using the Teacher Interaction and Language Rating Scale (Girolametto, Weitzman & Greenberg, 2000) to evaluate how effectively students interact with children during their practicum experiences (Students can also use the Teacher Interaction and Language Rating Scale to guide their classroom observations and to reflect upon their own interactive behaviour.)

If you are considering using Learning Language and Loving It resources with your students and would like to receive a complimentary preview copy of Learning Language and Loving It : A Guide to Promoting Children’s Social and Language Development in Early Childhood Settings (Weitzman & Greenberg, 2002) or the Teacher Talk workbooks, please contact academics@hanen.org.

For more information on Learning Language and Loving It, click here