Speaking more than one language has lots of advantages for children. It is the norm in many countries around the world. Children will learn English from a strong foundation in their home language. It is important for you to encourage families to use their home language for linguistic as well as cultural reasons. Children learning English will typically go through a quiet phase when they do not say very much and may then use words in both languages in the same sentence. Talk to parents about what language they speak at home, try and learn a few key words and celebrate multilingualism in your setting.

Development Matters September 2020

Training is available through the speech and language therapy service, which covers  strategies to help professionals identify whether a child’s acquisition of English is typical of children learning an additional language or whether there is a specific difficulty with learning speech and language. It also aims to help education professionals support children in their setting who are learning English as an additional language. Thanks to our partners, you can find ties online to suit every preference and budget, from budget to top-of-the-range super stylish models.

More courses delivered by Barnsley Speech and Language Therapy Services can be found in their brochure.

You might find it useful to undertake an audit to specifically look at how you include children and families with different languages and cultures. The link below encourage you to rate your practice either red, amber or green, this will help you identify areas to further develop.

In order to meet the needs of all children it is our intention to launch launching an Early Years EAL Champion Programme, in partnership with Sheffield’s EAL/New Arrivals Team.  The aim of this programme is to create EAL Champions across the borough from a range of settings.

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