NAEYC Podcast- Dual Language Learners

Participants:  Rae Pica, Jerri Daniel-Hosts

                         Karen Nemeth, Ed. M 

This podcast was about Dual and English Language Learners (DLL), (ELL) and I learned that there is a difference between the two.  First of all, Karen states that all preschool children are ELL which I hadn’t considered but such is the case.  DLL is where children of different ethnicities not only learn their home language but English as well. 

She also stated many parents only want their children to learn English and not their native language because they feel, especially living in the US that English is more important to their child’s academic success.  Research shows that when a child’s native language is used as well as English, it actually helps them to learn English more quickly and in fact, depriving them of their home language carries negative implications as well as their identity, which is an integral part of that child’s healthy development

Early childhood educators should encourage parents to use their native language in the home and for those parents who speak little English, to assist them by simplifying paperwork, using visuals, get translators, and try to learn common key words and make and keep eye contact.

Child Poverty in Bangladesh

Three insights I gained studying Bangladesh on Child Poverty from UNCEF’s page include:

• The extent of poverty declines according to the educational level of the parents. For example, 53% of households that have a household head with no education live below the upper poverty line, compared to only 19 per cent of households where the head has completed secondary education as a minimum.
•  Male headed households with children are more likely to live in poverty than comparable female-headed households. The research did not reveal why, but I am quite interested to know because I would have thought the opposite was true.
•  49% of households with children have at least one adult that suffers with a chronic illness.

There are key recommendations for policies and programs with regards to nutrition, health, education, child protection, water, sanitation, laws, and policy.  Because there are so many I will only list one from each category:

•  Expand nationwide evidence-based and proven nutrition interventions and improve coordination of nutrition programs, including: use of multiple micronutrients for control and prevention of anemia; exclusive breastfeeding and timely introduction of appropriate complementary feeding; and iron and folic acid supplementation for pregnant women.
•  Accelerate implementation of existing policies and strategies that are most likely to reduce risks to child well-being, and increase gender and age sensitive care and support services for Most at Risk Adolescents (MARA) and Especially Vulnerable Adolescents (EVA).
•  Access to safe drinking water and sanitation needs to be consolidated, expanded and sustained. Special emphasis should be given to arsenic affected, flood and disaster prone areas.
•  Alternative care facilities for children deprived of parental care and children in contact with the law should be increased and developed. The existing network of institutional care should be transformed into a family-type environment and monitoring and supervision mechanisms should be strengthened in order to ensure the quality of care.
• The inclusion of children, who are out of school, including those from ethnic minorities, needs the highest level priority.
•  Child related national legislation should be harmonized with the United Nations Committee on  the Rights of the Child Concluding Observations and Recommendations for the Government of Bangladesh 2009. A comprehensive child protection policy, addressing early marriage, child labor and street children issues, should be developed that articulates a clear and structured action plan to ensure preventive and protective measures for children.

Reference

http://www.naeyc.org/newsroom/NAEYCradio