Knowledge Zone

Dr Geraldine French is an expert in language and literacy in early childhood education. 

She will speak at Portobello institute’s Early Years Department’s webinar on Monday, February 7th. Her doctoral thesis is in the area of pedagogical interactions between adults and very young children in early childhood settings with a particular focus on educational inequality.   

Dr French will speak about the importance of early childhood, what we know about language and literacy in terms of research and how to support the development of language and literacy. 

Register here.

Ahead of the webinar, Dr French shared some insights around the importance of language and literature from birth. 

“There is a lot of literature now about the importance of reading routines for babies and that’s the point, it’s really important, this doesn’t start when children are three this starts literally from the nine months right when they are born. 

“Even from the womb, people can talk to babies in the womb which supports bonding, attachment and the recognition for the baby hearing sounds,” she said. 

“We know that language begets literacy, and that literacy begets all sorts of good educational outcomes, and we know that the learning starts from birth, so it is the adult and child interaction that makes the difference, it’s the actual behaviours.  

“The great thing, one piece of fabulous research shows that it’s not the socio-economic circumstances that make the difference in any sense, it’s what people do that makes the outcomes better for children,” she said.

If you are interested in hearing more from Dr French on this topic make sure you register here.

Dr Geraldine French is an Associate Professor, the Head of School of Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education, the Programme Chair of the Master of Education in Early Childhood Education and Senior Fellow of Advance HE. She is a specialist in early childhood education.  

She has worked for a variety of governmental and voluntary organisations, national and international, in conducting continued professional development, research, needs analysis, evaluations and consultancy for strategic planning. Commissioning bodies have included: The Arts Council, Barnardos, Better Start, Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education, Childhood Development Initiative, Children's Books Ireland, European Programme to Combat Social Exclusion, Fingal Libraries, Katharine Howard Foundation, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment among others.  

Dr French has lectured at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the area of early childhood education in the Dublin Institute of Technology and Froebel College of Education.  

She has published in the areas of parenting and the experience of poverty amongst families with very young children. In the context of early childhood settings Dr French has published on quality professional practice, supporting early language, literacy and numeracy and nurturing babies’ learning and development.  

More recently she has been focusing on examining interactions through video analysis of practice through dialogue founded in reflection and collaboration. 

Don't forget to register and spread the word  

We look forward to welcoming you to the Portobello webinar experience, please register today and come along to share the knowledge from these experts in early childhood education. Don't forget to share this event with your friends, colleagues and in the social media groups to the benefit of your fellow early years practitioners and colleagues. 

Register here.

If you have any problems with the online registration process please email michelle.hogan@portobelloinstitute.com for assistance. 

You can follow Dr Geraldine French on Twitter here. 

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