Brotherhood of St Laurence lunchtime research seminar - The Abecedarian Approach: Research findings and implications for home visit and parent education programs

Dr Joseph Sparling will present on the research history and findings from the Abecedarian studies. This series of scientific studies show that the Abecedarian Approach results in positive outcomes for at-risk children and families. The child gains begin to show up at 18 months of age and are still significant at 30 years of age. The Abecedarian Approach has been used in centres, visits, and parent education workshops.
Joseph Sparling, PhD, an early childhood educator and former schoolteacher and principal, has been a co-principal investigator on three longitudinal research projects known as the Abecedarian studies. In addition to many scholarly articles, Sparling is the author of Learning Games, Partners for Learning, and Conversation Books, educational resources for parents and teachers of very young children. He is a Research Professor at Georgetown University Center on Health and Education and a Fellow at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute of the University of North Carolina. Sparling is currently in Australia at the invitation of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and the University of Melbourne.