Learning Language and Loving It™ - The Hanen Program® for Early Childhood Educators  

In any preschool classroom, the needs of children can be very diverse, and some can be much harder to engage and teach than others. This makes your job as an early childhood educator difficult when you’re trying to make sure that every child in your classroom is given the best possible opportunities for learning.

The Learning Language and Loving It Program was designed to provide early childhood educators with practical strategies for helping all children in the classroom build language and social skills, no matter what their learning and communication styles are, and even if they have special needs.

The Learning Language and Loving It Program provides you with practical, research-based strategies for:

  • Promoting every child’s language development using natural everyday activities, routines and play
  • Becoming attuned to children’s interests so you can follow their lead, which is known to foster language development
  • Adjusting the way you talk to help children develop more advanced language skills
  • Promoting interaction among the children themselves
  • Facilitating language-learning in pretend play
  • Fostering emergent literacy skills


Program components

  • A Hanen Certified speech-language pathologist or early childhood education consultant leading the program to a group of up to twenty educators;
  • 5-8 intensive group training sessions (15-20 hours) in which you learn through a variety of media and by interacting with your fellow educators;
  • 4-6 individual videotaping and feedback sessions for each educator (educators’ interactions with children are videotaped by and reviewed with the group leader); and
  • User-friendly resources to support your learning.


NEW! Learning Language and Loving It Online Program

The Hanen Centre has developed an online version of the Learning Language and Loving It Program. The online model allows you to attend the program from the comfort of your own workplace or home office.

The group sessions are live, and you log in to a videoconferencing software that makes it easy to interact with your group leader and the other participants in the group.

There are separate video feedback sessions for just you and the children you work with, when your group leader records you interacting with your class while you apply the strategies you have learned. You and your group leader then review and discuss the recording, which helps you identify what’s working well and what you can modify to help children even more.

To participate in a Learning Language and Loving It Online Program, you will need the following equipment:

  • A computer, iPad or a tablet (smartphones and cell phones do not have a large enough screen)
  • Webcam and microphone
  • High speed internet
  • Email access
  • Adobe reader (free download)
  • Printer or scanner or photo capture and transfer (this is an optional requirement if you want to print out the handouts). All handouts are digitally available and fillable online


Program Resources

During the program, you’ll use the guidebook Learning Language and Loving It: A Guide to Promoting Children’s Social, Language, and Literacy Development in Early Childhood Settings. This guidebook contains a wealth of practical information on how to increase children’s participation in social interactions and expand their expressive and receptive language and emergent literacy skills during everyday activities and conversations. Following the program, you’ll continue to find the guidebook useful as you encounter new situations in your classroom, such as a child with a particular need or conversational style.

Educators who are waiting to attend a program may purchase the guidebook in advance to give their learning a head start and to gain some practical strategies that they can start using with children right away.

Learn more about the Learning Language and Loving It guidebook.


Benefits of Taking the Learning Language and Loving It™ Program?

Practical strategies you can use during everyday activities and routines

Learning Language and Loving It strategies can be easily woven into everyday classroom activities. Each strategy is designed to engage and maintain the interest of the children, making language and literacy-learning a fun and natural part of their day.

The program will provide you with ample opportunity to practice each strategy with your students, and to receive feedback from the Program Leader to help you adapt the strategies, as needed.

You’ll learn three kinds of responsive interaction strategies that are known to promote the social, language and emergent literacy development of preschool children. These are:

  1. Child-oriented strategies – These strategies encourage children to initiate and engage in conversational interactions so that educators can respond in ways that encourage the child’s continued engagement in the interaction.
  2. Interaction-promoting strategies – These strategies encourage extended individual and group conversations between adults and children.
  3. Language-modelling strategies – These strategies expand the child’s oral language skills and facilitate the development of decontextualized (or abstract) language.

Assurance that all children in the classroom will benefit

Using the Learning Language and Loving It approach ensures that every child in your classroom will receive the help and encouragement he needs. That’s because Learning Language and Loving It has a three-pronged, comprehensive approach aimed at:

  1. Prevention of Language Delays for children at risk and second-language learners;
  2. Early Language Intervention for children with language delays; and
  3. Language Enrichment for typically developing children.

An evidence-based and reputable program

Developed by expert speech-language pathologists and grounded in the most current research in the field of early childhood education, the Learning Language and Loving It Program has been field-tested and rigorously examined using randomized controlled trials. Its efficacy has been supported in a series of studies showing positive changes for both educators and children.

View a detailed research summary supporting the Learning Language and Loving It Program.

Learn more about collaboration between SLPs and educators with our webinar, Every Toddler Talking: Enriching Language Learning in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings. This video presents a project in Australia that paired SLPs and educators as trainers to examine the impact of Learning Language and Loving It on both educators and children.



Watch the short video below to see the impact Learning Language and Loving It can have in your early childhood setting.



What educators say about the Learning Language and Loving It™ Program...

“I have learned so much about language and communication development in young children through the Learning Language and Loving It Program. The changes I have made in my style of interaction and communication with the children have resulted in changes in the children that are quite evident”
- Educator in Toronto


Attending the Learning Language and Loving It™ Program...

Learning Language and Loving It Programs are offered by Hanen Certified Speech-Language Pathologists and Hanen Certified Early Childhood Education Consultants/Trainers around the world. To find a member who is certified to offer the Learning Language and Loving It Program, use the member search tool at the link below:

Find a Hanen SLP


If you're an early childhood education consultant/trainer or a speech-language pathologist...

If you’re an early childhood education consultant/trainer or a speech-language pathologist, and you are interested in becoming a Certified Learning Language and Loving It Trainer, click here.