By Ascend staff Sarah Mohammed
As summer comes to an end and the new school year starts, many parents and children may be anxious about the new start and what the new school year will hold. For multilingual families and children, this concern and anxiety may be greater. Bilingualism has so many strengths and benefits; however, it also comes with some challenges. Here are some tips on how to face these challenges head-on, and how to best support your child’s language development throughout the school year.
- Communicate with the Teacher: An important step in preparing your child for school is communicating with the new teacher. If you are able to communicate your child’s unique strengths and challenges, and what type of learner your child is, it will help establish a successful educational plan for your child from the very start.
2. Prepare your Child: The best way to prepare your child for the new and upcoming school year is to review new schedules, discuss changes in daily routines, review commonly used vocabulary, and build new vocabulary skills by reviewing words present in stories. Taking these steps will help during a time filled with change and transition.
3. Support Primary Language: Honor your child’s primary and strongest language as this will help support the language acquisition of their secondary language.
4. Increase Vocabulary: Build vocabulary throughout daily tasks and routines such as bath time and dinner time, as well as review vocabulary by reading books.
5. Specific Language Times: Stick to one language at a time, choose a language during an activity and/or daily routine and stick to it for the duration of that specific activity.
A very common misconception parents are told is that exposing their child to more than one language can cause a speech and language delay. This is not true. Sign up now for our speech therapy program to foster your child’s language development! You can read more at this link:
7 Myths and Facts About Bilingual Children Learning Language – HealthyChildren.org
For more resources on Bilingualism, visit the link below:
