Transcendent International, LLC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NICHD

Description

PROJECT SUMMARY The number and quality of utterances a child is exposed to especially during interactions with his her parents and caregivers has profound effects on early language development and forms the foundation for early language acquisition a critical developmental process and established predictor of later interpersonal and academic achievement Storytelling is a powerful medium for promoting language development particularly when contextualized in parent child co reading While there exists a vast array of childrenandapos s literature bilingual content is grossly underrepresented in childrenandapos s publications despite the rapidly increasing proportion of language minorities in the US As a consequence opportunities for facilitating language development and the quality of interactions through childrenandapos s literature are constricted for children in homes with limited English proficient LEP parents A more conscientious and sophisticated approach to bilingual storytelling building on authentic language acquisition mechanism is warranted to support the literacy development of children from minority language households Addressing these challenges this project will assess the feasibility of a comprehensive ecosystem for the creation of bilingual childrenandapos s literature incorporating a feedback mechanism allowing parents to gain insight in interactional patterns with their children built into eBook format Building on the concept of code switching a natural way of acquiring a language the content creation methodology guides the production of content with a unique language blend allowing gradually increased exposure to a second language as proficiency progresses This approach is based on standardized linguistic rules developed to promote a pedagogical transition between languages The feedback feature in the platform will be enabled through recordings of reading sessions and will provide users with a report of communication behaviors occurring between a parent and child In approaching language development through more authentic representations of bilingual content the Blossom ecosystem will contribute to alleviating disparities related to language acquisition among children in LEP households We will partner with a number of professionals in the early childhood education space and veterans from the childrenandapos s media industry and publishing throughout the development and evaluation phases of this novel platform PROJECT NARRATIVE Children from language minority and limited English proficient LEP households in the United States face a growing number of language development disparities as a result of linguistic isolation In order to address these barriers we propose an ecosystem that takes a nuanced and authentic approach to bilingual childrenandapos s literature and further facilitates language learning by providing constructive feedback that promotes parent child communication The current proposal seeks to develop a minimally viable prototype MVP of the content creation and consumption platform and conduct a feasibility evaluation of the system to assess consumer acceptance