Our platforms address the milestones and challenges of language development that children experience from ages 0 to 10. Through websites, e-books, formative materials and a mobile app, we offer theoretical references and practical suggestions to help adults create meaningful learning environments for children through simple, intentional actions.
We translate, integrate and materialize scientific knowledge produced by experts in the fields of linguistics, cognitive psychology, and pedagogy, making it applicable in everyday life.
By democratizing these tools, we hope to catalyze intentional actions on the part of the adults that interact with children both inside and outside of school. We believe that, through concerted efforts, adults can create productive contexts that realize children’s learning potential.
Apprendendo is a free mobile app that provides tips on how adults can transform ordinary situations into powerful learning opportunities. Organized in terms of physical settings (bedroom, kitchen, restaurant, street, etc.), the app offers adults a wide range of simple, age-appropriate activities to interact meaningfully with children 0 to 10 years old. It also explains the learning potential behind each idea and encourages adults to document their children’s experiences in an annotated photo album that can be shared with close friends and family.
Developed in partnership with a research team led by Prof. Ana Teberosky at the University of Barcelona, the Learning Language platform is a visual guide about early language development that highlights the importance of adult-child interactions. In order to illustrate milestones in this process, depictions of everyday situations are accompanied by expert commentary on when, what, and why children learn to speak.
The Reading Corner platform offers a collection of digital books that explore different aspects of language for adults and children to enrich their reading experience, whether together or alone, reading silently or aloud, or listening to a professional narrator. It also includes games and suggestions on how adults may enhance interactions with children who are just beginning their journey as readers.
The Learning to Study platform is a teacher-training methodology that promotes student development of academic language skills. It offers 4th and 5th grade teachers resources to analyze the content and structure of History texts, as well as to implement reading activities that simultaneously help children learn History content and become more familiar with the language used to represent it.
We believe that all children have the ability to learn, regardless of gender, race, class, or family structure, among other factors. Everything children observe and experience can impact their development for better or for worse. If learning is an ongoing process that permeates all aspects of children’s lives, adults play a fundamental role in mediating how children interact with the world, and set examples through their own attitudes and choices.
For this reason, Laboratório de Educação seeks to help adults create meaningful learning environments for children through simple, intentional actions. What children learn, how they develop, and the people they will become depends on us!