Teachers share strategies for welcoming and working with children who have recently arrived in the country.

Provide a welcoming environment

The first step is to offer children a familiar environment, says Virginia Turner of Centro Vida in Berkeley. “We try to make this their second home. If the main language [at home] is Spanish, this is how we’re going to talk to them.” Both the meals and the colors of the classrooms reflect the Latino culture, while teachers provide children with the nurturing they need, she adds.

Support learning in two languages

Minerva Pérez recalls when an Asian child entered her program who did not speak English. “Before the family arrived, I looked for books in their language and learned a few words to communicate with them,” says Pérez. The child spent most time with his grandmother, so to help him get used to the new school the grandmother would come to the classroom—at first for a good part of the day—to be with him. As both Grandma and the child felt more at ease and learned some English, the child felt safe and was able to become part of the group, Pérez adds.

“When I was a teacher in San Jose,” says Maria Gómez, who runs Annie’s Playhouse Child Care Center in Dub-lin, California, “I would stay after class with the Latino children so [I could] explain to them in Spanish what they had not understood. Sometimes teachers who are not bilingual mistake this difficulty for learning problems,” she adds.

Help with the transition

Pérez recalls how teachers helped Pablito and his family become part of his preschool classroom. The teachers visited Pablito and his family, and brought the child a toy. But the four-year-old child hid in his room. On the second visit, the teachers and Pablito’s parents invited him to play, read stories, and draw—he felt more comfortable and participated. Then, the teachers invited the whole family to visit the classroom and the Pablito “responded favorably in an environment of trust and security,” adds Pérez.

This article was reported and written originally in Spanish, thanks to the support of the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

Tips to support immigrant children

• Provide extra attention to help recent immigrant children adjust
  
  
• Provide rich language environments that help children learn English as well as their home language
  
  
• Play a tape of a parent telling a story or have children dictate stories in their home language
  
  
• Welcome families—and help connect them with community resources.
  
  

Resources

English Learning for Preschoolers Project, from WestEd, provides materials and trainings, www.edgateway.net/pub/docs/pel/home.htm

Preschool English Learners: A Resource Guide, California Department of Education, www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/documents/psenglearnersed2.pdf

More Children’s Advocate articles,
www.4children.org/topics/immigrant_families

Extra resources from the Children’s Advocate bulletin

• Early Education Programs and Children of Immigrants: Learning Each Other’s Language, from the Urban Institute, discusses how states and communities can improve access to early education programs for children of immigrants.
  http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412205-early-education.pdf
  

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