The Gift of Language
Language is one of the most important gifts you give your child. But how do you give it? The answer is simple. Speak your language with your child at home every day!
Head Start programs are committed to providing equitable access to comprehensive services that prepare children for school and life. An important part of this commitment is recognizing and respecting the culture and language of the children and their families.
Head Start programs put into practice an equity-focused mindset in several ways. They implement anti-bias and nurturing environments. They promote protective and supportive factors for children’s and family’s health and well-being. And they provide educational opportunities, systems, and policies that position each child to reach their highest level of learning and life potential.
Programs do this while emphasizing children’s cultural and linguistic strengths and holding high expectations for all. Administrators, teachers, providers, caregivers, and families can use these resources to promote a positive experience for all children and by emphasizing children’s cultural and linguistic strengths.
Language is one of the most important gifts you give your child. But how do you give it? The answer is simple. Speak your language with your child at home every day!
Here are eight things you can do every day to help your child learn your family’s language and become successful in school!
The easiest, most important thing is for parents and family members to use their home language every day. Many families worry that using their home language will confuse their children or make it more difficult for them to learn English. Help parents understand that children can learn more than one language at the same time.
Children make great gains in literacy when they are engaged in conversation before, during, and after storytelling. This dialogic reading strategy is used to increase vocabulary and language development in young children. Teaching teams may use the Tough Boris example as a way to introduce dialogic reading.
In order for children to close any achievement gap they may have experienced when they entered Head Start or Early Head Start, programs must have clear systems in place that support high-quality instruction. These resources are designed specifically for program leaders.
Children communicate so much through their behavior. Teachers and caregivers will find this article useful in identifying strategies for working with dual language learners exhibiting challenging behaviors.
Babies are born “citizens of the world.” Children can tell the difference between all the sounds in all the world’s languages at birth.
One-third of the children in Head Start and Early Head Start are dual language learners (DLLs) who are learning English while also learning their home language. Virtually all of these children will code switch. In other words, they mix two or more languages in the same sentence while speaking. It is important that teachers, home visitors, and other staff understand what code switching is, the role it plays in language development, and how to respond to it.
For an adult, trying to learn a second language can be a difficult task. Young children have a much easier time learning languages than adults. They learn language by having ample opportunities to hear speech from adults and peers.
Children who speak home languages other than English make up at least one third of Head Start enrollment. They speak more than 140 languages and are enrolled in 87 percent of all Head Start programs. All Head Start staff, and policy makers will want to understand what these young dual language learners (DLLs) need in order to thrive in Head Start and beyond. They will also want to know how to support DLL’s development and school readiness skills.