Martine van der Pluijm

159 General discussion to incorporate this type of coaching to develop teachers’ skills in assessing the HLE, reciprocal relationships, and explaining and modeling targeted language use to parents and children in parent-child activities. Before we conducted the third and fourth study (Chapters 4 and 5), we adjusted the prototype to the needs of teachers and parents. We created a program with seven theoretical steps (i.e., design principles) to establish SFPs with lower-educated parents in support of child language development (see Figure 6.2). In Step 1, teachers assess the HLE to understand families’ needs and the resources they can draw on. In Step 2, they develop individualized action plans to form goal-directed SFPs in line with parental resources. In Step 3, teachers establish reciprocal relationships with parents, and in Step 4, they arrange adapted parent-child activities. The last three steps focus on explaining and visualizing how children’s oral language development can be supported. Step 5 emphasizes parental role development, Step 6 prioritizes the use of language, and Step 7 focuses on expanding children’s language. The third study (Chapter 4) evaluated the impact of the optimized AHL program on teachers’ perceptions and behavior. We investigated teacher adherence ( n =14) to the AHL program steps and adaptation to parents’ needs. The main research question of this study was: To what extent does AHL contribute to teachers’ sustained use of the seven steps to improve SFPs that support children’s oral language development? At the posttest, 12 of the 14 teachers reported that they were able to focus on the implementation of the programand participated in professionalization activities. Nine of these 12 teachers reported that they had followed the seven program steps. Three teachers implemented six steps but had problems implementing Step 7. The remaining two teachers only implemented three steps due to personal circumstances that limited their efforts. Class inventory lists and questionnaires showed significant improvements in teacher adherence to the first two AHL steps from pretest to posttest. The improvement of Step 3 approached significance. Observations showed that teachers significantly improved adherence to AHL Step 4 to Step 7. Teachers also succeeded in involving more parents in parent-child activities from pretest to posttest. The two teachers who did not fully participate in the program activities showed the least improvement. Finally, the results show that all teachers were intrinsically motivated to work with parents while following the AHL program. They reported that the program had contributed to their goals as a teacher, had allowed them to tailor their work to their situation and that they wanted to continue using the AHL program. However, teachers showed less progress in gaining insight into the HLE, one of the aspects of Step 1 [Assess the HLE] and Step 3 [Build reciprocal relationships]. Additionally, teachers’ self-reports for assessing the HLE and building reciprocal relationships showed significantly lower rates for parents at Level 1 (primary education at most) compared to parents at Levels 2 and 3 (at least lower secondary education or more). Our interviews indicated that teachers acknowledged the importance of these steps but experienced a lack of resources for gaining in-depth knowledge