Does thrive by three, a quality-building intervention in childcare centres, strengthen children’s language skills?

The study is part of the Thrive by Three project, which is a professional development model designed to increase the quality of the interaction between kindergarten staff and children in kindergarten toddler departments. The purpose of the current study is to investigate whether the Thrive by Three model had an effect on children’s language development. The study explores two research questions:

1. Does the Thrive by Three model, a quality promotion intervention in kindergarten, strengthen children’s language skills compared to controls at the 1-year follow-up point?
2. Is the potential positive effect of Thrive by Three different for boys and girls?

The results show that children in the intervention group had somewhat greater language development than the children in the control group, but the difference was not statistically significant. The researchers also investigated whether the intervention study affected girls and boys differently. The findings show that the effect of the intervention was only present for girls’ language development. The study showed no statistical difference in the change in boys’ language development between the intervention and control groups.

A total of 78 kindergartens from seven different municipalities in Eastern Norway and Central Norway participated in the Thrive by Three project. The study was conducted as a cluster-randomised control study in which kindergartens were divided into an intervention or control group. The intervention group adopted the Thrive by Three model. The sample consisted of a total of 1561 children, spread over 187 kindergarten toddler departments with children aged 10-36 months. More than 90% of the children were ethnic Norwegians. The kindergarten staff answered questionnaires related to the children’s development, which included a vocabulary checklist to investigate language development. Data on the children’s language development were collected before and after the intervention, approximately 10 months apart. The researchers thus used a linear mixed model to measure the children’s language development.

Lekhal, R., Drugli, M. B., Karlsen, L., Lydersen, S., & Buøen, E. S. (2023). Does thrive by three, a quality-building intervention in childcare centres, strengthen children’s language skills? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 32(3), 448–463.