Young Dual Language Learners with Disabilities: Supporting Children in the Classroom: Instructors Guide

Activity: Young Dual Language Learners with Disabilities: Supporting Children in the Classroom

Understand the importance of supporting a child’s development in his or her home language as well as in English.

This Activity addresses the DEC Recommended Practices (DEC-RP) topic areas outlined below:
Family
F1. Practitioners build trusting and respectful partnerships with the family through interactions that are sensitive and responsive to cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic diversity.
F8. Practitioners provide the family of a young child who has or is at risk for developmental delay/disability, and who is a dual language learner, with information about the benefits of learning in multiple languages for the child’s growth and development.
Environment
E1. Practitioners provide services and supports in natural and inclusive environments during daily routines and activities to promote the child’s access to and participation in learning experiences.
E3. Practitioners work with the family and other adults to modify and adapt the physical, social, and temporal environments to promote each child’s access to and participation in learning experiences.

Chances are you will have many children who are dual language learners (DLLs) in your classroom. Because some of these DLLs will have a developmental delay or disability, teachers need to be prepared to provide quality education for this growing population. For teachers of dual language learners with disabilities, the challenges involve not only preparing the environment but also interacting and accurately assessing those children’s development and learning.

The DEC Recommended Practices (DEC-RP) note the importance and benefits of maintaining children’s home language as they learn English as a way to promote the children’s learning in both. Watch the video Home Language for Success in School and Life and answer the questions that follow.

Credit: National Center on Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness (2015). Washington, DC: Office of Head Start.

1. Why is it important to maintain young children’s home language?
   Answers or discussions might include the following:
   • Children learning two or more languages have more opportunities in their future (e.g., employment).
   • When a child’s home language is taken away, his or her cultural identity and skills are lost.
   • Teachers can support a child’s culture by supporting their home language.
   • A child’s sense of who he or she is comes in part from culture and home language.
   • Young children learn social skills when families speak to them in their home language.
   • Children transfer their knowledge of concepts from one language to the new language.
   • Without the support of their home language, children enter school at a disadvantage.
   • When children have uninterrupted development in their home language, they will be most prepared for school.
   • Effective programs for young DLLs require continued development of their home language while they acquire English.
2. What can teachers and programs working with young dual language learners do to promote the children’s home language?
   Answers or discussions might include the following:
   • Effective programs for young DLLs require the program to continue the development of their home language while they acquire English.
   • Teachers can help families understand the importance of maintaining the child’s home language.
   • Teachers can bring the child’s home language into the classroom by learning some key phrases or posting examples of the language around the room.
   • Teachers can ask families to share their language, culture, knowledge, skills, talents, and hobbies.