Martine van der Pluijm

182 Chapter 6 for child language learning, the impact of the HLE on children’s language development, the challenges that lower-educated parents experience, and the required teacher skills to connect with parents. This is not surprising considering that pre-service and in-service education prepare teachers insufficiently for their work with parents. We argued why different types of research are needed to fill the gap between theory and practice and to extend our knowledge of effective programs for collaboration between teachers and lower-educated parents. Coordinating and implementing research can contribute to improved practices in support of young children’s language development in disadvantaged family contexts. This thesis described how teachers can improve their skills to work with lower- educated parents by implementing the seven steps of the AHL program and how their efforts can influence parent-child interactions. Teachers who participated in our studies indicated that they could do their work more effectively, after they coped with their struggles with parents. This work on SFPs directed at young children’s language development might contribute to positive perceptions of teachers and to their work in disadvantaged areas that are most in need of high-quality teachers. The theoretical principles that we presented can be used and tested in diverse settings and will hopefully inspire new school practices that build upon shared interests and knowledge of teachers and parents.