Martine van der Pluijm

57 Activities and strategies – a review of empirical interventions enrich their dialogues with the child. Many lower-educated parents lack the knowledge and experience for such dialogues. First, it is important to use explicit instructions to follow the child’s initiative, to change turns, and to wait for the child to respond (Sheridan et al., 2011). For instance, a social play activity as ‘I spy’ can include explicit instructions to give time to the child to think, and to change turns after the right answer. Second, dialogues can be enriched by using scaffolding . This strategy can naturally intertwine both emotional and cognitive support, by following the child’s perspective and challenging the child by the use of acquired language and new language (Landry et al., 2008). Parents should follow the children’s interests and sensitively support and encourage their initiatives (Boyce et al., 2010). Parents should be supported to ask open questions linked to the interests of the child. Third, parents can ask children to talk about their past experiences , a strategy that challenges the child to use decontextualized language (Reese et al., 2010). Our second recommendation is directed at the delivery modes that contribute to the effectiveness of the intervention. We recommend adapting the intervention to the families’ social environment in two steps. The first step is to determine which familiar activities can be used to deliver the strategies (Landry et al., 2008). Therefore, practitioners could map out the social-cultural environment of the family, such as daily routines and the activities that they enjoy (Boyce et al., 2010). Background information such as parental education levels, their language skills in the dominant or a minority language, and their literacy skills can provide insight into parental knowledge and skills. By building reciprocal relationships with parents and children (Bakker et al., 2013; Lusse, 2013), intervention activities and goals can be adapted to the sociocultural environment of the family. The second step is to help parents practice the strategies repeatedly with the child and coach the dyads to use the strategies (Wasik & Sparling, 2012). If possible, translators or native speakers should be involved (Boyce et al., 2010). Our final recommendation is to explore how teachers can play a role in supporting lower- educated parents to promote oral language at home (Neuman et al., 1995). Teachers can have a unique position to collaborate with parents directed at strengthening oral language development in a sustainable way (Sheridan et al., 2011). However, most teachers lack the knowledge to collaborate with parents effectively, especially when it concerns lower-educated parents (Bakker et al., 2013). Therefore, they should be trained to fulfil this role and establish collaboration that strengthens home support adapted to family needs and perspectives (Pelletier & Corter, 2005; Sheridan et al., 2011). Training sessions with child involvement can take place during school activities and during home visits in which the parent and child carry out activities together (Jacobs, 2004). In both situations, teachers can play an important role in supporting lower-educated parents, thereby contributing to the enrichment of the home language environments of their children.