Thank you for visiting the Bulbul project webpage.

We are an international project led by Professor Ghada Khattab at Newcastle University and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council Global Challenges Research Fund (ESRC GCRF).

We are working across the UK, Lebanon, Jordan, The West Bank and Egypt.

Our key aims are:

• To develop tools to measure Arabic-speaking children's language development.
• To promote the early detection of language difficulties across the Middle East.
• To gain an understanding of the root causes of educational inequalities including socioeconomic vulnerability and variability of childcare provision in the Middle East with a focus on Lebanon. 
• To promote life chances of Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon by increasing access to the Early Years curriculum.
• To promote parental involvement in children's language development.
• To inform policy in these areas in order that the importance of language development in the early years is recognised.

Why bulbul?

Bulbul means Nightingale in Arabic, a bird known for its beautiful singing voice. It is also used to positively describe somebody as a 'chatterbox'. Our aim is to support children's language development to produce lots of chatterboxes!

If you and your child would like to take part in our project, please click 'take part' in the menu above.

You can also browse our pages written specifically for parents, stakeholders (e.g. NGOs), practitioners (e.g. SLPs) and researchers interested in early language development, as well as our wide range of free resources for supporting children's early language.