Promoting Literacy Development in Children in Rural Cocoa Producing Communities
Kaja K. Jasińska1 Clarisse Hager2, Ariane Amon3, Christelle Kakou4, Salomon Koffi3, Axel Seri4, Guei Sosthene4
1Haskins
Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA, 2Nutrition and Education for Children, Jacqueville, Côte d'Ivoire 3Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, 4Centre d'Action et de Recherche pour la Paix, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
INTRODUCTION
STUDY DESIGN
Children living in poverty grow up facing numerous obstacles to literacy,
including limited time and/or resources dedicated to learning, impoverished
learning environments, and inadequate education resources
Specific Aim: To examine the impact of poor educational access, cocoa
labor, and impoverished environments on language development in French
and Kwa/Kru languages (Attié, Baoulé, Abijdi, Bété), cognition (working
memory, attention), and reading ability. We examine how bilingualism in
French and Attié/Baoulé/Abijdi/Bété impacts literacy in an environment where
access to French (at school) is inconsistent
Hypotheses: Children’s French and Attié/Baoulé/Abijdi/Bété language abilities
and cognitive abilities may be differentially sensitive to impoverished learning
environments over critical ages for literacy acquisition (ages 6-12)
70+local
languages
READING
LANGUAGE
COGNITION
Bilingualism
Estimated 1.3 million children between the ages of 5-17 are working
in cocoa production, 14.8% of children working in cocoa production
are not attending school (Tulane University, 2015)
• Work may interfere with education, e.g. dropping out of school
temporarily during harvest season
• Work may result in fatigue, negative health impacts, or leave little
time for homework and other school-related task
Methods
Language Assessment and Literacy Assessment (Yopp et all, 1995; Woodcock et al., 2001 )
Survey of Home/Community Environment, School
Participation, and Labor in Cocoa Agriculture
Task
Description
French
Phoneme identification,elision,
segmentation
Tonemic Awareness* Identify words that “sounds similar”
(Alllocallanguages are tonal)
(share tone) to target
Attié, Baoulé,
Abijdi, Bété
Phonological
Awareness
Vocabulary
Synonymand antonymgeneration
RapidAutomatized
Naming
Timedcolornaming
OralComprehension
Listentostory+comprehension
questions
Specific effects of
LetterDecoding
povertyoncognitive
Reading
outcomesare
largelyunknown
Passage
Comprehension
INSTRUCTION
CHILD LABOR IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE
Participants
500 children ages 6-12 in primary school (grade 1–6; French system: CP1, CP2,
CE1, CE2, CM1, CM2) from rural Attié, Baoulé, Abijdi and Bété speaking
regions. Children complete language and literacy assessments, cognitive
assessment, and interview on home/community environment, school
participation and labor in coca agriculture.
Weincorporaterobustcollaborationwithlocalresearchersandlong-term
mentorshipforIvorianstudentstoprovideopportunitiestoconductchild
developmentresearchandadvanceresearchskillsintransitionto
independentglobalscientists.Our Ivorian research team includes
three linguists (1 PhD, 2 doctoral candidates) and three human
rights and development masters students.
n/a
Wordandpseudowords reading
n/a
Sentencecompletion, readpassage+
comprehensionquestions
n/a
*Tonemic Awareness Task (Shu et al., 2008): Attié Example
Very high tone
CHALLENGES
• Age at starting school and school attendance varies depending on the
availability of funds and need for child labor – a problem in impoverished
cocoa producing regions, including Côte d’Ivoire
• A rural classroom has students that range in age and with inconsistent
access to reading instruction (late enrollment, grade repetition)
• A child entering into formal education faces the challenge of learning to
read in a new language (French), different from the community language.
PilotingscheduledforSept.;datacollectionscheduledforOct-Nov.
ʃè [yam]
Low tone
Cognitive Assessment (NIH Cognitive Assessment Toolbox)
Task
We conduct baseline and regularinterval self-assessment of
research skills: knowledge of key
concepts in child development,
statistics, study design, reading
scientific papers, manuscript and
grant writing.
NEXT STEPS
Target
fè [bone]
Low tone
ʃe̋ [gazelle]
Example Questions: “In the last year, did you do any of the following
on a cocoa farm: sowing, weeding, applying fertilizer, spraying
insecticide, etc.?
SCIENTIFIC CAPACITY BUIDING
n/a
Letteridentification
Inconsistent
andpoor
quality
instruction
Based on USAID Early Grade Reading Assessment and Tulane University Survey of Child Labor in West African Cocoa
Growing Areas (2015)
Description
Sequenceitems ina2-7itemlist(animals)accordingtosize.
WorkingMemory:
ListSortingTask
Understandingthecomplexrelationshipsbetweenimpoverished
environment,delayedand/orinconsistentaccesstoeducation,children’s
linguisticsandcognitivedevelopment,andreadingoutcomesyieldsnew
informationaboutreadingdevelopmentinenvironmentswithahighriskof
illiteracy.Thiswillrevealhowthetypicaldevelopmentaltrajectoryfor
literacyrespondstoperiodsofinterruptedreadinginstruction.Crucially,
thisapproachwillinformwhenindevelopmentreadingismostsusceptible
tothenegativeeffectsofmissedschoolingandcanbeusedtoidentify
targetareasforinstructionandintervention.
CONTACT
Indicate the arrow direction in congruent and incongruent trials
Attention:
FlankerTask
Congruent
Incongruent
Kaja Jasińska, PhD
[email protected]
www.haskins.yale.edu/staff/jasinska
Supported by the Jacobs Foundation Early Career Fellowship