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View PDF version of Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - English.
Please find below a list of resources in a variety of home languages for parents of children in Kindergarten through Grade 3.
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Arabic
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Farsi
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Gujarati
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Hebrew
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Korean
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Punjabi
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Russian
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Simplified Chinese
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Tamil
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Traditional Chinese
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Urdu
- Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language - Vietnamese
Talking with Your Child in Your Home Languages
A resource for families with children in Kindergarten
As a parent of a child learning a new language, you play a vital role in helping your child maintain your home languages. Research shows that speaking two or more languages benefits children’s well-being, language and literacy development, thinking and reasoning, and learning skills.
Children who speak multiple languages:
- Develop a strong sense of identity
- Connect to their cultures and communities
- Gain confidence and develop positive self-esteem
- Develop strong family relationships
- Can transfer literacy skills from one language to another
- Can apply reading and writing strategies learned in their home languag when learning to read and write in an additional language.
- Can think in flexible ways
- Can share thoughts and ideas with family members using complex language
- Develop planning and problem-solving skills
- Take risks in their learning
- Focus effectively on relevant information
Use your home languages with your child
To support oral language development:
- Talk with your child when playing together, and discuss activities that you do
- When doing daily tasks together, talk about what was done first, next and last
- Encourage your child to explain to a family member how to play a game or do an activity
To support literacy skills:
- Read with your child every day and talk about the story, such as what the story reminds you of
- Help your child learn to read in your home languages
- Provide opportunities for your child to see you reading in your home languages
*Adapted from Supporting English Language Learners in Kindergarten, 2007
Help support the development of your child’s languages at school
Speak with and share information with your child’s Kindergarten educators often. You can:
- Share your child’s strengths and interests with them
- Share learning experiences with the Kindergarten team that your child has engaged with outside of school
- Ask how they are supporting your child’s English language development
- Ask how they are building on your child’s home and community languages
- Ask how play supports your child’s oral language development
- Clarke, P. (2009). Supporting Children Learning English as a Second Language in the Early Years (birth to six years)
- Hanen Centre (2015). Bilingualism in Young Children, Separating Fact From Fiction.
- NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children). (March, 2013)Many Languages, One Teacher: Supporting Language and Literacy Development for Preschool Dual Language Learners, p.9.
- Ontario Ministry of Education. (2007). Supporting English Language Learners In Kindergarten: A Practical Guide for Educators, p. 27.
- Ontario Ministry of Education. (2013). What Works? Research into Practice: Fostering Literacy Success for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Students. Research Monograph #45
- Ontario Ministry of Education. (2016). The Kindergarten Program, 2016, p. 69.
- Ontario Ministry of Education. (2017). Important Information in Many Languages.
- WIDA (Wisconsin Centre for Educational Research). (August, 2014). Focus on the Early Years: Dual Language Learners, p. 3.
- WIDA (March, 2015). Focus on Early Years Programs: Supporting Dual Language Learners, p. 4.
Resources
Talking with Your Child in Your Home Language is available in a variety of home languages (see above) for parents of children in Kindergarten through Grade 3.