Supporting a multilingual child
Consider the information you gather from parents prior to their start date
- What languages are spoken at home?
- What languages the child predominately speaks at home?
- Collect key words and key phrases for staff to learn and use with children through their day.
- Find out as much information as possible about the family background and religion in addition to the child’s likes and dislikes.
Consider your settling in process
- Is your settling in process flexible to support the unique needs of each child and family?
- Do you include home visits or stay and play sessions to support positive relationships and attachments?
- Do your multilingual parents fully understand these procedures?
- How do you support multilingual families?
Think about the quality of your learning environment
- Does it enable multilingual children to thrive and make appropriate progress?
- Are all children’s languages valued, promoted and displayed around your setting?
Quality of the relationships between key people, children and parents
- Are multilingual children’s and their parent’s voices heard?
- Are there constant opportunities for ongoing dialogue?
- How do you overcome any language barriers that may exist?
- Do you operate buddy systems for children and parents, matching parents/carers who share the same language?
- Do you plan social gatherings for children and their families to help promote positive relationships?
How can I help parents with a child’s language development?
You can use the following prompts when talking to multilingual parents about their child’s language development.
Children under two
- How does your child communicate with you? Is your child using non-verbal communication? (Eye contact, pointing, understanding single words and following simple instructions).
- Is your child using verbal communication? (Making sounds, babbling, saying single words or beginning to link 2 or 3 words together).
- Does your child interact with you? (Does your child take turns by copying facial expressions, mimicking sounds, a simple conversation?).
Children over two
- Tell me about your child’s language development in their home language? Have they reached their milestones so far?
- What are your child’s listening skills like? (Is your child beginning to listen when interested, do they listen and join in with stories, songs and rhymes?).
- Can your child follow simple instructions?
- Does your child understand simple concepts? (For example, under, on, in, big, little).
- How does your child communicate? (Is your child using many different single words, using simple or complex sentences, confident to speak to people other than close family or friends?).