The It Takes Two to Talk Program has been shown to be effective in changing how parents interact with their children, and that children’s communication and language skills improve as a result.

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The approach parents learn in the It Takes Two to Talk Program is based on overwhelming evidence that it is the parent-child interaction that provides the context for the child’s language learning and that, when parents are more responsive and fine tune how they talk with their child, children’s communication development is accelerated.

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Evidence for the It Takes Two to Talk® Program

Three studies have been conducted on the It Takes Two to Talk Program itself. All three studies involved preschool children (under age 4) and their mothers, who participated in an It Takes Two to Talk program. The behaviour of these mothers and children was compared to groups of mothers and children who were on a waiting list for the It Takes Two to Talk Program (who later received the program).

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The following results were found for the mothers and children participating in the It Takes Two to Talk Program (vs mothers and children in the control group, who were not involved in the It Takes Two to Talk Program):

• Mothers became more responsive

• The children were more assertive, responsive and able to take more turns (both verbally and non-verbally)

• Mother-child interactions were more balanced, frequent and lasted longer

• Parents reported improved family relationships

These results showed that the It Takes Two to Talk Program enabled mothers and children to connect and communicate better, providing the children with many more opportunities to learn within these everyday interactions and conversations.  (Girolametto, 1988, Tannock, Girolametto, & Siegel 1992)

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This information was retrieved from Hanen's website.  If you would like more information, about the research behind this course, please click here. (You will be leaving this website).

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