UWEC CERCA 2026

The purpose of this study is to better understand childcare teachers' beliefs about multilingual language development. Understanding these beliefs is essential, as inaccurate advice or inappropriate referrals may contribute to inequities in access to speech-language pathology services for multilingual children. Researchers have found that early childhood teachers often hold false beliefs about the impact of multilingualism on language development, including the belief that learning multiple languages hinders language development or confuses children as they develop their language systems. Undergraduate researchers contacted daycare program directors via email to explain the purpose of the study and how it would be conducted. For centers that agreed to participate, researchers delivered paper surveys for teachers to complete and collected them one week later. Data were analyzed to examine the accuracy of daycare teachers’ knowledge and how factors such as previous work with multilingual children, years of experience in daycare, and level of education related to knowledge accuracy. These findings could spur action and future research aimed at increasing daycare teacher knowledge. This could improve the accuracy of information shared with parents and the appropriateness of referrals to speech-language pathologists, enhancing care for multilingual children and their families.