Stanford University - Language Learning lab

The Language Learning Lab in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University is a world leader in research on how children's early language experience influences their language and cognitive development, with cascading consequences for children's later school success. 

The Habla Conmigo Academy is a unique science-and-service collaboration between the Language Learning Lab at Stanford University and Grail Family Services, a community service organization in San José, CA. This intervention is designed to help vulnerable Latino parents in low-income families learn how to engage more effectively with their infants and toddlers and learn why such engagement is crucial for language and cognitive development – with the goal of reducing the "vocabulary gap" between disadvantaged and advantaged children. Parents gain new skills and knowledge in workshops based on cutting-edge research on child development. Children's language outcomes are assessed using innovative experimental measures of their emerging language proficiency. After three years of foundational research and development of this parent-engagement program, we are now expanding the Habla Conmigo Academy by designing and implementing new programs for parents of Spanish-learning children from 1 to 4 years of age. Central to this effort is rigorous scientific evaluation of the efficacy of this intervention, showing that positive changes in the quality of caregiver-child interactions can strengthen children's language skills.