Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Bilingual or Multilingual children
I live in a country where there is diverse range of cultures, languages and nationalities. People from all over the world reside here. As a result, our children here have a wider exposure in terms of language and social development. Along side with this exposure that our children benefit from, it also brings in greater concerns for parents, educators, childcare providers and so on. Most frequently the first concern that would surface from this kind of a social setup is – how do we successfully bring up a bilingual/multilingual child?
I have a lot parents come to me with the concern of delayed speech, if the child is brought up as a bilingual child! I also have had some concerns pertaining to social behaviour of a child due to the diversity in cultures here. A lot of preschoolers retreat a few steps when they are brought in a diverse milieu than their own.
A lot of problems occur owing to the myths that follow with bringing up bilingual children. Some of which include:
1. Delayed speech development
2. Developing Language problem.
3. Refrain from talking, so on and so forth.
These are just few myths that people carry with them. But I personally do not agree with any of these as such. From the little expertise that I have in dealing with children and their psyche, I feel they have tremendous potential to learn. The sensitive period as described by Dr. Maria Montessori, is the most crucial time for the child’s holistic development. During this time (typically from 0 to 6 years) a child’s capacity to grasp and learn is absolutely monstrous. Under any circumstance this capacity of a child should not be misjudged. As this misjudgement of yours would cause more harm to your child’s development than any other external factor.
Characteristically, the developmental milestones of a bilingual child are achieved at the same time a monolingual child hits them. In contrast to a monolingual child, a bilingual child has more advantages than his mono-peers. In 1997 a research that was conducted in the York University concluded that bilingual children understand written language faster than their monolingual counterparts. According to me, a bilingual child attains more freedom of speech with a wide-range of vocabulary at a very early age. They become more expressive than their counterparts, for the simple reason being they have a better and developed sense of language. With the benefits though one always has risks attached to it. The child could take a while to grasp the concept of dealing with two separate systems of language. But the better you are equipped with the knowledge and expertise of how to handle these situations the better language control your child will gain. However, there are many more benefits to bilingualism: ( Excerpts taken from http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby/Bilingual.html)
1. Meta-linguistic awareness (bilingualism builds a natural awareness of how language works)
2. Cognitive flexibility (choosing between languages can develop a flexibility of thinking that can be applied to other problem solving areas)
3. Social sensitivity (sensitivity to others from a young age)
Research by Goldsmith also shows multilingual children can outperform monolingual children in secondary school, if their first language is acknowledged and supported alongside English.
With the importance of this in mind the article states a number of ways a child’s first language can be supported in an early years environment, including:
1. Making sure the correct pronunciation of children’s names is known
2. Ensuring dual language books are widely available
3. Reassuring parents about the use of the child’s first language and remind them of Goldsmith’s research stated above
The article also gives a number of useful terms for understanding bilingualism:
1. Simultaneous bilingualism – two or more languages are acquired before the age of three
2. Successive of sequential bilingualism – one language is established, a second is learned later
3. Additive bilingualism – the first language and culture associated with it continue to be developed and valued
4. Subtractive bilingualism – the second language is added at the expense of the first
I personally trained my child by making him hear a lot of different sounds and languages. Because I wanted him to be able to speak his native language (gujarati) and the national language (Hindi) with equal ease as he would speak English alongside Arabic and French, I adopt a wide variety of techniques to teach him these languages. Today, at the end 4yrs of incessant work he is able to speak all the 3 languages with equal ease and understands a little bit of the other two languages too. However, he being at a stage of continual learning process; he does end up with mixed sentences and words. Typically, according to experts it’s normal for bilingual children to make such errors. They overcome this problem with more experience and support from adults providing the correct vocabulary. For example, we had a few guests at our place. One of the ladies had a bellybutton piercing done. My son looked at it and said “mom look she has a petring” (he had managed to create a word mixing Gujarati and English, where pet = stomach and ring of course one would understand). It was hilarious. But the point here is that when children are bilingual their creativity increases. He did manage to come up with a word that made sense to him.
I have a lot parents come to me with the concern of delayed speech, if the child is brought up as a bilingual child! I also have had some concerns pertaining to social behaviour of a child due to the diversity in cultures here. A lot of preschoolers retreat a few steps when they are brought in a diverse milieu than their own.
A lot of problems occur owing to the myths that follow with bringing up bilingual children. Some of which include:
1. Delayed speech development
2. Developing Language problem.
3. Refrain from talking, so on and so forth.
These are just few myths that people carry with them. But I personally do not agree with any of these as such. From the little expertise that I have in dealing with children and their psyche, I feel they have tremendous potential to learn. The sensitive period as described by Dr. Maria Montessori, is the most crucial time for the child’s holistic development. During this time (typically from 0 to 6 years) a child’s capacity to grasp and learn is absolutely monstrous. Under any circumstance this capacity of a child should not be misjudged. As this misjudgement of yours would cause more harm to your child’s development than any other external factor.
Characteristically, the developmental milestones of a bilingual child are achieved at the same time a monolingual child hits them. In contrast to a monolingual child, a bilingual child has more advantages than his mono-peers. In 1997 a research that was conducted in the York University concluded that bilingual children understand written language faster than their monolingual counterparts. According to me, a bilingual child attains more freedom of speech with a wide-range of vocabulary at a very early age. They become more expressive than their counterparts, for the simple reason being they have a better and developed sense of language. With the benefits though one always has risks attached to it. The child could take a while to grasp the concept of dealing with two separate systems of language. But the better you are equipped with the knowledge and expertise of how to handle these situations the better language control your child will gain. However, there are many more benefits to bilingualism: ( Excerpts taken from http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby/Bilingual.html)
1. Meta-linguistic awareness (bilingualism builds a natural awareness of how language works)
2. Cognitive flexibility (choosing between languages can develop a flexibility of thinking that can be applied to other problem solving areas)
3. Social sensitivity (sensitivity to others from a young age)
Research by Goldsmith also shows multilingual children can outperform monolingual children in secondary school, if their first language is acknowledged and supported alongside English.
With the importance of this in mind the article states a number of ways a child’s first language can be supported in an early years environment, including:
1. Making sure the correct pronunciation of children’s names is known
2. Ensuring dual language books are widely available
3. Reassuring parents about the use of the child’s first language and remind them of Goldsmith’s research stated above
The article also gives a number of useful terms for understanding bilingualism:
1. Simultaneous bilingualism – two or more languages are acquired before the age of three
2. Successive of sequential bilingualism – one language is established, a second is learned later
3. Additive bilingualism – the first language and culture associated with it continue to be developed and valued
4. Subtractive bilingualism – the second language is added at the expense of the first
I personally trained my child by making him hear a lot of different sounds and languages. Because I wanted him to be able to speak his native language (gujarati) and the national language (Hindi) with equal ease as he would speak English alongside Arabic and French, I adopt a wide variety of techniques to teach him these languages. Today, at the end 4yrs of incessant work he is able to speak all the 3 languages with equal ease and understands a little bit of the other two languages too. However, he being at a stage of continual learning process; he does end up with mixed sentences and words. Typically, according to experts it’s normal for bilingual children to make such errors. They overcome this problem with more experience and support from adults providing the correct vocabulary. For example, we had a few guests at our place. One of the ladies had a bellybutton piercing done. My son looked at it and said “mom look she has a petring” (he had managed to create a word mixing Gujarati and English, where pet = stomach and ring of course one would understand). It was hilarious. But the point here is that when children are bilingual their creativity increases. He did manage to come up with a word that made sense to him.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Praises or Acknowledgement??
Praises – by and large people would agree that we shouldn’t be miserly when it comes to praising someone or also a child. Generally, we hear people say “a child needs a lot of praises to grow up into a confident adult”. I personally wouldn’t agree with people who advocate praises. I would rather vouch for acknowledgement. There is a very fine line between praise and acknowledgement. Where praise is usually used to influence, manipulate and direct a certain behaviour or repetitive chore; acknowledgement extends support to the child, making him/her more self reliant in the long run rather than looking for assurances from people around him/her.
Most of the times we want our children to be confident and self dependent. But are we really succeeding in doing so? We hear this very often – “dad, please see my work, do you think the teacher will like it?” or “is this good?”, seldom do you see children get in an open ended discussion with their grown-ups. Usually, a child becomes unaffected to those praises and stop responding to them in the long run. For example, you are playing karaoke and you score 100 points irrespective of how unmelodic you have been.
Acknowledgement, on the other hand offers support and confidence to the child. Acknowledgment does not evaluate the child. For example, if your child has helped you pick up his toys – there are two ways u can tell your child….1. Wow!!! You are a good helper………(praise) and 2. Thanks for helping me pick up the toys so quickly. Now we have more time to play outside. ……(acknowledgement).
The first statement - praise……..maybe the child has just picked up one or two toys and you exaggerating the act by praises. Next time, it’s most likely that your child may not respond to your request. The 2nd option …..Does recognise the efforts of your child and in addition gives him a logic too…..that he gets more time to play too.
Here are a few examples of praises vs. acknowledgement:
ACT: After a lot of toiling you child has managed to build a tower of blocks.
PRAISE: Wooooaaahhh!! That’s terrific!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: I am amazed to see that you kept trying even when the blocks fell over and over!!
ACT: When your child is trying to colour some picture and comes to you and asks if it is good or not, but doesn’t look too contented with the colouring that he has done!!!
PRAISE: Aww…that’s great! You’ve done it well sweetheart!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Why are you looking sad darling? Do you think we should fix it? Or you would want to leave it for now?
Giving a child an honest feedback is more important than to simply praise them; a feedback, which would describe their accomplishments and not judge them (good or bad). An honest feedback would give your child a sense of who he/she is, without setting the must and must not’s of behaviour. Acknowledgement preserves their self-esteem too.
Most of the times we want our children to be confident and self dependent. But are we really succeeding in doing so? We hear this very often – “dad, please see my work, do you think the teacher will like it?” or “is this good?”, seldom do you see children get in an open ended discussion with their grown-ups. Usually, a child becomes unaffected to those praises and stop responding to them in the long run. For example, you are playing karaoke and you score 100 points irrespective of how unmelodic you have been.
Acknowledgement, on the other hand offers support and confidence to the child. Acknowledgment does not evaluate the child. For example, if your child has helped you pick up his toys – there are two ways u can tell your child….1. Wow!!! You are a good helper………(praise) and 2. Thanks for helping me pick up the toys so quickly. Now we have more time to play outside. ……(acknowledgement).
The first statement - praise……..maybe the child has just picked up one or two toys and you exaggerating the act by praises. Next time, it’s most likely that your child may not respond to your request. The 2nd option …..Does recognise the efforts of your child and in addition gives him a logic too…..that he gets more time to play too.
Here are a few examples of praises vs. acknowledgement:
ACT: After a lot of toiling you child has managed to build a tower of blocks.
PRAISE: Wooooaaahhh!! That’s terrific!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: I am amazed to see that you kept trying even when the blocks fell over and over!!
ACT: When your child is trying to colour some picture and comes to you and asks if it is good or not, but doesn’t look too contented with the colouring that he has done!!!
PRAISE: Aww…that’s great! You’ve done it well sweetheart!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Why are you looking sad darling? Do you think we should fix it? Or you would want to leave it for now?
Giving a child an honest feedback is more important than to simply praise them; a feedback, which would describe their accomplishments and not judge them (good or bad). An honest feedback would give your child a sense of who he/she is, without setting the must and must not’s of behaviour. Acknowledgement preserves their self-esteem too.
Monday, December 7, 2009
DAP – Part 2: Can we generalise children into a traditional setup
When we talk about children it is important to realise that each child is unique. Each child is born with some special ability. Each of them are born gifted, the problem is to let them remain gifted as they grow up. We as adults are so scared of making mistakes; we pass on that fear in our children. Hence, depriving them of their capacity to innovate & create.
Our traditional system of education does exactly the same – rob our children of their giftedness. Each child has different capacities and abilities, how can they be generalised in terms of curriculum. There exists so many multiple intelligences, and every child has them in different levels.
A traditional system of education stigmatises a child who makes more mistakes. But doesn’t try to find out where is the problem, or whether it really a problem or not. Maybe the child is highly creative and wants to try out new things from the work given to him/her. Most of the times that creativity is squandered quite ruthlessly resulting in loss of creativity and the capacity to think out-of-the-box. Today, we need individuals who can think out-of-the-box to achieve success in this increasingly complex setup.
A DAP doesn’t look very different from a traditional setup. But the crucial difference between a traditional setup and a DAP is that a DAP setup is child-centered and a traditional setup – is teacher specific; where the teacher is more dictatorial than being a guide. For example, in a developmental kindergarten, a child who is ready to read and enjoys reading is taught advanced skills for reading and those who are not are put into pre-reading activities, which enhances their auditory and visual skills and help them learn their letters better. Opposed to that, a traditional schooling – a child is compelled to perform irrespective of his readiness to grasp a concept.
Its upon the parents to decide whether they would like to generalise their child or take advantage of his/her unique abilities.
Our traditional system of education does exactly the same – rob our children of their giftedness. Each child has different capacities and abilities, how can they be generalised in terms of curriculum. There exists so many multiple intelligences, and every child has them in different levels.
A traditional system of education stigmatises a child who makes more mistakes. But doesn’t try to find out where is the problem, or whether it really a problem or not. Maybe the child is highly creative and wants to try out new things from the work given to him/her. Most of the times that creativity is squandered quite ruthlessly resulting in loss of creativity and the capacity to think out-of-the-box. Today, we need individuals who can think out-of-the-box to achieve success in this increasingly complex setup.
A DAP doesn’t look very different from a traditional setup. But the crucial difference between a traditional setup and a DAP is that a DAP setup is child-centered and a traditional setup – is teacher specific; where the teacher is more dictatorial than being a guide. For example, in a developmental kindergarten, a child who is ready to read and enjoys reading is taught advanced skills for reading and those who are not are put into pre-reading activities, which enhances their auditory and visual skills and help them learn their letters better. Opposed to that, a traditional schooling – a child is compelled to perform irrespective of his readiness to grasp a concept.
Its upon the parents to decide whether they would like to generalise their child or take advantage of his/her unique abilities.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Developmentally Appropirate Practices: Right for each child individually (Part 1)
This is the first time I am planning to pen down my ideas and views on different topics. Hopefully you will find it interesting enough to read each of the subjects. I am welcome to all suggestions, ideas and criticism if any. It will only help me grow into a better writer.
The topic that i am going to write on today is Introduction to Developmentally Appropriate Practices.
To start with, what do you mean 'developmentally appropriate'? The easiest way that I can describe the methodology is that it is an approach to education where the child is the focal point and not the teacher. The teacher serves as a mere guide in the process of a holistic development of a child. The child being a developing human being right from its inception in its mother's womb till its death, is in continual process of learning. This methodology teaches a child to be a life long learner. It teaches the child how to catch a fish rather than feeding it with fish. Every aspect of the child's development is taken care of, be it physical, emotional, social or cognitive. Each of it is stressed upon with equal importance. The child himself is the catalyst of learning and growth. He gives clues to his guide as to how much he can learn and in what duration.
The topic that i am going to write on today is Introduction to Developmentally Appropriate Practices.
To start with, what do you mean 'developmentally appropriate'? The easiest way that I can describe the methodology is that it is an approach to education where the child is the focal point and not the teacher. The teacher serves as a mere guide in the process of a holistic development of a child. The child being a developing human being right from its inception in its mother's womb till its death, is in continual process of learning. This methodology teaches a child to be a life long learner. It teaches the child how to catch a fish rather than feeding it with fish. Every aspect of the child's development is taken care of, be it physical, emotional, social or cognitive. Each of it is stressed upon with equal importance. The child himself is the catalyst of learning and growth. He gives clues to his guide as to how much he can learn and in what duration.
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