Estudio del impacto de una intervención en las interacciones educadora-niños en el nivel de desarrollo de lenguaje de niños de 12 a 24 meses en dos centros infantiles en zonas de pobreza de la ciudad de Guayaquil

Abstract

The present work is a study of the impact of an intervention to promote interactions between educators and children in order to develop the language in children ages 12-24 months, a stage of high potential development. The pilot project was developed in two childcare centers of intervention and in a child-care center of control, in poor sectors of Guayaquil; the three centers were selected because they had similar characteristics as determined by the researcher. The design of the research was quasi-experimental. In the initial phase, three variables were evaluated: the level of educator-children interactions, the level of language development of the children, and some items of the environment of the rooms, in order to have a vision of the context. In the intervention phase, the methodology of action research was used. In the final phase, the same variables were evaluated as at the start. The results show, after the intervention, an increase in the level of language development of the children in the centers of intervention over the levels achieved by the children in the control center. The intervention phase showed the actions, achievements, and expectations of the educators during the process, which permit an understanding of the quantitative results. This study does not lead to a generalization about what happens in the child-care centers of the city nor to determine the level of language development of the children. However, it does demonstrate the benefits of an intervention in a key aspect of early childhood development. It propose to extend this study to new interventions to contribute to reduce the gap between poor children and those in better economic situations.