ECD Webinar: Early Childhood Literacy

Webinar postponed from 2025. If you have already purchased a ticket, we will be in touch with the Zoom link in January. 

Families Canada in partnership with Abilio, is excited to announce a new webinar in the popular ECD webinar series!  

Join our esteemed speaker Dr. Christa Japel, Associate Professor in the Department of Specialized Education and Training at the Université du Québec à Montréal, as she discusses the importance of vocabulary development in early childhood, as well as evidence and best practices related to early literacy. And learn concrete strategies and practices that will enable caregivers to enrich young children's vocabulary to foster better preparation for formal schooling. 

About this event 

In this webinar, we will present the importance of vocabulary development in early childhood, as well as evidence and best practices related to early literacy. Research shows that by the time children enter elementary school, there is an alarming inequality between children from different backgrounds in terms of their vocabulary breadth, an essential factor in good reading skills and later educational success. We will propose concrete strategies and practices that will enable caregivers to enrich young children's vocabulary to foster better preparation for formal schooling. Finally, we will present a program that has been validated here in Quebec and has shown significant results in increasing vocabulary among children from disadvantaged backgrounds: the program 'Les aventures de Mimi et ses amis'. 

Who is presenting? 

Christa Japel holds a PhD in psychology from the Université de Montréal. She is an associate professor in the Department of Specialized Education and Training at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her research interests focus on the various environments that have an impact on the psychosocial and cognitive development of young children, in particular the family context and daycare services. She has produced several publications on the quality of daycare services and 4-year-old kindergartens, as well as on vulnerable children at risk of school failure. She is a recognized expert both here and elsewhere in the field of early childhood education and care, and has contributed to the development of surveys conducted by Statistiques Québec and Statistics Canada. She has also developed, implemented, and evaluated several programs aimed at improving the quality of early childhood education and care services. Her program 'Les aventures de Mimi et ses amis' aims to improve the vocabulary of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, since the extent of their vocabulary in preschool is an important predictor of their learning to read and subsequent educational success.