The Effect of Fathers' Language Training Program on the Receptive Language Development of Children

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy of a training program so as to support language development in children provided for the fathers, having 36-48 month-old children who do not get pre-school education. For this purpose, "Father Language Assistance Program" has been developed by the researcher. The sample of the study consisted of 42 fathers, living in Emet county in Kutahya, whose children do not get preschool education, and the children of these fathers. In the study, the research design with pre-and post-test control groups was used. 22 fathers in the sample were involved randomly in the experimental group and exposed to 8-week father language assistance training program while the other 20 fathers were determined as the control group and did not get any kind of father training. The language development levels of the children were assessed with "Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test". In the analysis of data Mann Whitney U Test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test were used. According to the findings of the study, a statistically significant difference was found between the language development levels of the children whose fathers were involved in "Father Language Assistance Program" and the levels of other children whose fathers weren't. Therefore, "Father Language Assistance Program" affects children's language development levels positively. The study also proves the positive effect of the training program given to the fathers on children's language development and so contributes to the literature.