How can I help newcomer children at our centre who are having difficulty separating from parents?
Newcomer children with language and cultural differences often need help from childcare workers to transition into a childcare program.
Bizuneh Wubie, assistant professor at Marshall University, West Virginia, studied the adjustment of children from diverse linguistic backgrounds to childcare.
Her Toronto-based study was conducted with 12 parents and 6 teachers, using in-depth interviews and observation of children in their homes and in childcare settings. She was able to identify some of the approaches that did and did not work:
What worked:
- Encouraging parents to stay with their child for some time;
- Developing a warm and positive partnership between parents and staff;
- Using lots of pictures, particularly culturally-specific pictures, as well as physical gestures;
- Saying a few simple words in the mother tongue, but only when necessary;
- Finding out from the parent what English words or songs the child is familiar with;
- If a child is crying, singing songs or saying words in English with which the child is familiar;
- If a child is distressed, move slowly and gently when using toys and educational materials (for example, build with blocks in an orderly fashion, hug dolls in a loving way, do puzzles slowly, pour water from one jug to another).
The study states that this approach is consistent with Montessori’s theory that children love to watch small moving things, and also enjoy activities performed in a slow and gentle manner. Finally, to communicate with or to teach a child it is important to start from what the child already knows.
What didn’t work:
- Playing or talking in the language the child did not understand, soothing them in an unfamiliar way, and singing songs with unfamiliar melodies did not work — the children would often turn their faces away, throw toys offered to them, and struggle to get away when hugged;
- Talking to the children in a language they did not understand intensified their protests and made the transition even more uncomfortable.
To read the full text of this research paper