A language and reading intervention programme for Chile, piloted in the Robinson Crusoe population.

Lead Research Organisation: University of Oxford
Department Name: Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics

Abstract

The Robinson Crusoe Island is a remote island situated 667km west of Chile. It forms part of the Juan Fernández archipelago in which there are three Islands but this is the only inhabited one. Access to the Robinson Crusoe Island is difficult, there is aeroplane access in the summer but in the winter there is only a monthly ship which serves the island (if possible). This means that the Islanders are very isolated, both geographically and culturally from the mainland, even though they are Chilean. The current population of the Island is approximately 800 people. The majority of these people are descendants of the families that founded the Island in the late 19th century and most people earn a living from lobster fishing. All people live in a single town and all children attend a single school.
Although the school follows the curriculum of the mainland, the teachers usually come from the mainland on a 2-3 year post and so are not necessarily integrated into island culture and the teaching tools are not always modified to the Islanders and their way of life. The isolation of the island means that children have to move to the mainland at a young age if they wish to continue their studies into higher education. Travel to the mainland is also essential for medical and dental treatment meaning that children can miss a lot of school. These factors can act as a barrier to a high quality education and reflect the challenges faced by many isolated and indigenous communities through Chile and the world.
The vulnerability of the Robinson Crusoe population, in terms of educational opportunities, is further increased by a high incidence of language and learning disorders, which are associated with lower educational attainment and employment opportunities. In addition, a tsunami recently struck the island wiping out existing municipal facilities including the school. Classes now take place in a shipping container with little space for individual tutoring or quiet lessons.
In the UK, studies have shown that vulnerable populations can be helped by extra lessons at school. Training in speech-sounds, letter knowledge and reading provide the best long-term educational advantages for children with language difficulties. Strong language foundations, in turn, bolster literacy development and numeracy skills and provide a wider framework for classroom learning. We would like to pilot this kind of scheme on the Robinson Crusoe Island to see if such interventions are also advantageous in isolated Chilean populations. This is an ideal population to test out the system because they have many complicating factors that challenge educational progression. If the interventions work here, we would like to make recommendations to extend the programme to other isolated, indigenous and rural populations in Chile. We will work with speech and language experts at the University of Chile, who have existing contacts with the Islanders and with specialists at the University of Oxford who have designed and trialed interventions in the UK and
Brazil. We will work with local professionals to provide training and support of the programme transferring skills across international boundaries and building research capacities in Chile. We hope that the lessons learned from this project can be extended to indigenous and continental populations on the mainland and beyond, allowing Chile to take a leadership role in the confrontation of educational inequalities.

Planned Impact

The primary direct beneficiaries of this research will be the inhabitants of the Robinson Crusoe Island. Prof Villanueva's previous studies have clearly demonstrated an increased incidence of speech and language problems on the Robinson Crusoe Island and established the need for a systematic review of the treatment of Island children. As a result Prof Villanueva and her team have developed a strong relationship with this community. Their advice and support is recognised and appreciated and their research has the proven ability to benefit the residents. They provide ongoing advice for resident teachers and the families of affected individuals. On the mainland, the team at the University of Chile have developed and normalised language tests which may be used to better assess language and reading development in Spanish speakers and have a reputation in the speech and language field which will ease the development of future programs which have the ability to impact upon the lives of many Chilean communities.
At the very minimum, our research promotes awareness of vulnerable populations and steps which may promote educational development and attainment in such populations. A better understanding of the efficacy of interventions in alternative cultures and settings represents a key step in addressing educational inequalities which has broad applications across lower income countries at a global level.
If successful, this pilot study will generate critical information which has the power to address some of the challenges which face socio-economically disadvantaged populations. Effective interventions have been shown to benefit literacy development and numeracy skills providing a scaffold for classroom learning. Strong educational foundations are tightly linked to employment and economic and social development. Thus, in the longer term, the proposed programme may bring benefit to the whole Chilean community and beyond.
In our project design, we have taken care to transfer skills and empower communities wherever possible. From the involvement of the more able students in the reciprocal reading classes to the training of local teaching assistants, the strategy is to combine the expertise skills of the UK and Chile to generate a sustainable programme that will impact the maximum number of people.
We will communicate our research outcomes using a diverse range of public engagement activities to inform and engage as many people as possible in our research. We present the results of our research in international peer reviewed journals and at national and international conferences. We are regularly involved in public engagement activities such as practical workshops for local schools and family activity days. Dr Newbury is an STEM ambassador for science and Prof Villanueva is involved in the "1000 scientists, 1000 classrooms" program managed by CONICYT (the Chilean scientific and technology national agency). This scheme involves the mentorship of final year school students by scientists and aims to inspire and motivate children in science subjects. Prof Snowling is a founder member of the RALLIcampaign (https://www.youtube.com/user/RALLIcampaign), a youtube channel which focuses upon issues surrounding speech and language impairment (and includes videos in Spanish). We communicate our research through social media and through our websites, which communicate information in many different formats and work with public engagement and press officers at our institutions to participate in public events.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description We have developed an intervention programme for use in Chile. This programme has been delivered to an isolated community on the Robinson Crusoe Island in Chile.
We have found that the programme made significant differences to the pre-literacy skills, word reading, vocabulary, narrative and reading comprehension of children on the Island.
We have trained local researchers to deliver the programme and are working with other researchers to develop a more sustainable form of he programme.
We are now adapting this programme for use in Brazil
Exploitation Route We are conferring with local researchers to discuss ways to adapt the programme for use in other settings and to develop a sustainable form of the programme.
We are now adapting this programme for use in Brazil
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

 
Description We have been working with the local community to implement the programme in a rural setting. This has involved developing an understanding of the local community and education and healthcare policies. The delivery of the programme represents successful knowledge exchange between researchers across countries and between researchers , policy makers and professionals. The entire group have now received some intervention and we have had other members of the community asking to be included in the next run. We have trained Island teachers and government to establish a long term delivery of the programme and will keep in contact with them going forward to achieve this goal. We are working with Brazilian researchers in Sao Paulo to deliver a similar intervention programe. We have 400 children from 23 schools in teh Sao Paulo area enrolled on the programme which will run between September 2021 and September 2022
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education
Impact Types Societal

 
Description British Academy Early Chilhood Education 2019
Amount £348,731 (GBP)
Funding ID ECE190048 
Organisation The British Academy 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2019 
End 11/2021
 
Description Brookes 
Organisation Oxford Brookes University
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We are collaborating with researchers at Brookes to functionally validate our findings in the RIC3 gene
Collaborator Contribution Our partners have been performing patch clamp techniques on cells
Impact Publications in draft
Start Year 2015
 
Description Centre for Reading and Language 
Organisation University of York
Department Centre for Reading and Language (CRL)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We have applied for and won a Newton grant to work with psychologists from the Centre for Reading and Language to develop a reading intervention programme in Chile
Collaborator Contribution Our partners will help us to develop the programme
Impact Newton award
Start Year 2015
 
Description UCL 
Organisation University College London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Researchers at University College London helped to design and implement the programme
Collaborator Contribution Researchers at University College London helped to design and implement the programme
Impact Programme design
Start Year 2016
 
Description Universidade Federal de São Paulo 
Organisation Federal University of São Paulo
Country Brazil 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We are liaiasing with a Brazilian researcher who is also developing a reading intervention to exchange ideas
Collaborator Contribution We are liaiasing with a Brazilian researcher who is also developing a reading intervention to exchange ideas
Impact Discussions regarding overlaps between programmes and possibility of trials in Brazil
Start Year 2017
 
Description University of Chile 
Organisation University of Chile
Country Chile 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We have performed the genetic analyses in this collaboration
Collaborator Contribution Sample collection and intellectual input
Impact We collaborate with researchers from the Univeristy of Chile in the investigation of SLI in an isolated population. The researchers at the Univeristy have direct contact with the population and have collected DNA, genealogical data and linguistic measurements from the Islanders. We conducted genetic analyses of the population in collaboration with core statistical support at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. These data resulted in a publication in 2011 and were presented as a platform presentation at the International Congress of Human Genetics in 2011. This collaboration is ongoing and collaborative grant applications are under consideration.
Start Year 2009
 
Description university of leeds 
Organisation University of Leeds
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Researchers from the University of Leeds have helped to design and establish the programme alongside our team
Collaborator Contribution Researchers from the University of Leeds have helped to design and establish the programme alongside our team
Impact Programme design
Start Year 2016
 
Description Engagement with local community 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Patients, carers and/or patient groups
Results and Impact The programme on Robinson Crusoe includes ongoing workshops with the families of individuals in the study, teachers and local governers to maximize research outputs. These workshops involve two-way discussion of the programme design and implementation
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016,2017,2018
 
Description SSSR 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact We gave a presentation about our project at the Conference for the Scientific Study of Reading in Novo Scotia in 2017
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Talking genetics with Robinson Crusoe - talk at UBC 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact A scientific talk to members of the Social Exposome group at University of British Colombia. The talk was on zoom and so was able to be attended by people from around the world including students and researchers from outside of my immeaditae discipline. 150 people attended the talk
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Workshop with Chilean researchers 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact We held a research work group regarding reading and language in Chile and met with researchers in Santiago to discuss the possibility of implementing our intervention programme on the Mainland.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017