CATCA 2025

This presentation will outline how successful language learning happens throughout a child's development. The structure will be to answer the following questions by outlining the latest research and then providing examples from in-school experience.
1) What is unique about child language learning, and how is it different from animal communication, and AI-based language?
2) When does child language learning begin and what are the critical periods for language learning?
3) Who are the people that an ideal language development community requires?
4) Where are the spaces that language learning occurs most successfully?
5) How can home and school contexts be transformed into language-rich environments?
6) Why is language development so vital to a child's social, academic, and future vocational success?
7) Which changes can be made immediately and which changes take time?
Each of these questions will be answered in a way that attendees can understand the findings, as well as the implications and opportunities for the classroom.