Kia Tīmata Pai (Best Start) Video Project: Effects of an oral language professional development program (ENRICH) on educator-toddler conversations

• Educator-child interactions video-recorded and coded across ECE activity settings. • Conversation-eliciting talk over time favored ENRICH over control centers. • Children's talk during book-reading also favored ENRICH centers. • Findings highlight PD's potential to enhance educator and child language in ECE. This study investigates the impact of a professional development (PD) initiative, ENRICH, on educator and toddler language quality and quantity. Data comes from a larger cluster randomized controlled trial, Kia Tīmata Pai (Best Start) , aimed at enhancing young children’s language and self-regulation. A subset of 24 centers (110 educators and 183 children) took part in video observations at baseline and a one-year follow-up. Educator-child interactions were video-recorded across five target activity settings: book-reading, group, diapering/toileting, play, and mealtime. Educators’ child-directed talk was coded for temporal reference (past, present, future) and function (conversation-eliciting and conversation-directing utterances). Analyses at the center level showed significant differences in educators' conversation-eliciting talk over time in book-reading and diapering/toileting favoring ENRICH centers, with a similar pattern for children's total talk during book-reading. These findings highlight the potential impact of professional development programs, such as ENRICH, to enhance both educator practices and child language use within early childhood education and care settings.