Language development in Arabic-speaking children in the early years: tackling the roots of academic and social inequalities

0-4岁的发展期为个人的一生奠定了基础，为他们在健康、教育、就业和福祉方面的长期成果确定了轨迹。语言是这条轨迹的核心。因为“技能生技能”（Heckman, 2008），在这个阶段解决语言困难比孩子长大后带来更大的收益和经济回报。在阿拉伯世界，决策者倾向于把重点放在后来的补救方案上，这大大降低了“缩小差距”的机会，特别是对社会上处于不利地位的儿童。在任何人口中，约有7%的儿童在语言发展方面达不到预期水平。这相当于中东和北非国家约2300万有语言障碍的儿童和青少年。虽然这些困难在整个社会范围内都存在，但在社会弱势家庭中患病率更高，在英国的一些学校中高达40%。这个为期4年的项目是两所英国大学（纽卡斯尔和普利茅斯）、圣约瑟夫大学（贝鲁特）、约旦科技大学和比尔泽特大学（西岸）之间的多学科合作，活动涵盖埃及、约旦、西岸和黎巴嫩。它汇集了一个由语言学家、心理学家、言语和语言治疗师、儿科医生和教育工作者组成的团队，为黎凡特国家和埃及有效的幼儿政策开发必要的知识和工具。我们的目标是解决缺乏对文化敏感和标准化的工具来衡量讲阿拉伯语儿童的语言发展的问题，这是健康发展的主要指标和教育的基础技能。为此，我们需要证明多方言方法的可行性，我们需要量化社会劣势、多语言和育儿模式对语言发展的影响。我们还需要估计与战争有关的创伤如何影响该地区的语言发展轨迹。最后，我们需要提高公众和政策制定者对早期语言技能重要性的认识，授权最终用户使用工具来筛查儿童的语言迟缓和提供以语言为中心的课程，并传播当地从业人员在预防和干预方面的专业知识。在WP1中，我们在所有四个国家调整和标准化了沟通发展清单（CDI）。CDI是评估8个月至4岁婴儿词汇和语言发展的黄金标准父母问卷。在WP2中，我们重点关注黎巴嫩，那里的多民族和多语言局势造成了极其复杂的局面。使用CDI作为调查工具，我们定义了社会劣势的准确衡量标准，并研究了托儿模式的多样性如何影响语言技能。我们通过比较阿拉伯语CDI和黎巴嫩语三语CDI来评估解释多语言的最有效方法。最后，通过CDI、ASQ（5个发展领域）和SDQ（社会情感技能），我们描绘了叙利亚和巴勒斯坦难民儿童在定居点和营地的发展轨迹的全貌，并将相关信息反馈给非政府组织和政策制定者。在WP3中，我们建立了一个关键利益相关者小组，并共同设计适当的方法，以最大限度地发挥从WP1和2中收集的知识的影响。特别是，我们开发了标准化CDI的应用程序版本，提供免费评估和特定文化，以家长为中心的活动。我们为从业者和政策制定者共同打造了一系列社交媒体活动、专业培训活动、研讨会。与难民家庭一起，我们促进和评估旨在帮助儿童为上学做好准备并降低辍学率的早期教育活动。除了对黎巴嫩的关注之外，我们还评估了这些举措对伙伴国家的可出口性，其长期目标是向中东其他国家伸出援手。

The developmental period from 0-4 years lays the foundations of an individual's life-course, setting the trajectory for their long-term outcomes in health, education, employment and wellbeing. Language is at the heart of this trajectory. Because "skill begets skill" (Heckman, 2008), addressing language difficulties at this stage brings much greater gains and economic returns than when children are older. In the Arab world policy-makers tend to focus on later remedial programmes, with much reduced chances of 'narrowing the gap', especially for socially disadvantaged children.Across any population ~7% of children do not reach expected levels in language development. This corresponds to ~23 million children and adolescents with language difficulties in Middle Eastern and North African countries. Whilst these difficulties are found across the social spectrum, their prevalence is higher in socially disadvantaged families, reaching up to 40% in some UK schools.This 4-year project is a multi-disciplinary collaboration between two UK universities (Newcastle and Plymouth) and the University St Joseph (Beirut), the Jordan University of Science and Technology, and Birzeit University (West Bank), with activities covering Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Lebanon. It brings together a team of linguists, psychologists, speech and language therapists, paediatricians and educators to develop the necessary knowledge and tools for effective Early Years policy in Levantine countries and Egypt.Our aim is to address the lack of culturally sensitive and standardised tools to measure language development in Arabic-speaking children, as a primary indicator of healthy development and the foundation skill for education. For this, we need to show the feasibility of a multi-dialect approach, and we need to quantify the effects of social disadvantage, multilingualism and childcare mode on language development. We also need to estimate how war-related traumas impact trajectories of language development in the region. Finally, we need to raise awareness of the importance of early language skills in the public and policy makers, empower end users with tools to screen children for language delays and provision for language-centered curricula, and disseminate the expertise of local practitioners for prevention and interventions.In WP1, we adapt and standardise the Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) across all four countries. The CDI is the Gold Standard parental questionnaire to assess vocabulary and language development in infants aged 8 months to 4 years.In WP2, we focus on Lebanon, where the multiethnic and multilingual situation creates an acutely complex picture. Using the CDI as an investigation tool, we define an accurate measure of social disadvantage and examine how the diversity of childcare mode impacts language skills. We evaluate the most efficient way to account for multilingualism by comparing the Arabic CDI to the Lebanese trilingual CDI. Finally, with the CDI, the ASQ (5 developmental domains) and the SDQ (socioemotional skills), we paint a full picture of developmental trajectories in Syrian and Palestinian refugee children in settlements and camps, to circle back contextualised information to NGOs and policy makers.In WP3, we set up a key stakeholder group and co-design appropriate methods to maximise the impact of knowledge gathered from WP1 and 2. In particular we develop an app version of the standardised CDI, providing free assessment and culture-specific, parent-centred activities. We co-create a series of social media campaigns, professional training events, seminars for practitioners and policy makers. With refugee families, we promote and evaluate Early Years activities geared towards getting children ready for school and reducing dropout rates. Beyond the focus on Lebanon, we assess the exportability of these initiatives to partner countries, with the long-term goal of reaching out to the rest of the Middle East.