Early childhood education: NRW relies on language support in everyday daycare!

Early childhood education: NRW relies on language support in everyday daycare!

The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia has a clear focus on promoting language skills in early childhood education. In this context, everyday language education is further developed and integrated into everyday daycare, for example in activities such as playing, exploring or having lunch. An essential guide for providers and educational professionals in this process is a basic paper from 2014, which provides basic approaches. As part of the WAS-NRW project, the concept of language education integrated into everyday life is being comprehensively revised in order to do justice to the diverse living environments and different needs of the children.

Family Minister Josefine Paul opened the constitutive meeting of the advisory board, which is intended to support the further development of the fundamentals. The advisory board is made up of representatives from municipal associations, state youth welfare offices and tried and tested practical experts; the entire process is also supported by a scientific committee. The revision of this content will be tested in selected daycare centers in the coming months, including the introduction of dialogic reading, which is considered key to early language development.

Focus on multilingualism and digital media

A central concern of further development is the early promotion of language and literacy, with particular attention being paid to the children's multilingualism. Digital media are also being considered as important resources in early childhood education. The aim is to create the foundations for later reading and writing skills. Dialogue reading is a method that helps to increase children's interest and language development skills.

In addition, the initiative addresses questions about language education integrated into everyday life, language problems and multilingualism. For this purpose, the “QUESTIONED” format is created, through which educational professionals can receive practical, understandable and scientifically sound answers to frequently asked questions. Readers are invited to submit their questions via email to enable them to be answered as part of a question-and-answer portal.

Integration of family languages ​​in everyday daycare

Early language education is particularly important for children who speak a language other than German at home. Attending an educational institution such as a daycare center significantly promotes German development. It is also important that other languages ​​are integrated alongside German. Materials such as the handout “Language education in daycare – integrated into everyday life and intercultural” offer practical examples and reports on the integration of multilingualism.

The PUMA project, which promotes the productive use of multilingualism in children's everyday lives, aims to strengthen the visibility of family languages ​​and develop the educational language of German. Educators can find suggestions in a variety of free materials to specifically integrate multilingualism in their institutions.

In addition, the publications “Stay cool. Deal with multilingualism in a more relaxed manner” and contributions from experienced practitioners such as Ingrid Gogolin and Samuel Jahriß provide valuable ideas for the practical implementation of multilingual support.

Drorit Lengyel provides important procedures to improve language diagnostics for multilingual children in elementary school. The brochure “Multilingualism for the development of language awareness” was also created as part of the FÖRMIG program and provides knowledge about the children’s native languages.

The comprehensive initiative in North Rhine-Westphalia, supported by various projects and expert advisory boards, impressively shows how children's language skills can be specifically promoted through the integration of everyday activities, multilingualism and digital media. The aim is to lay the foundation for successful language development in the first years of life using dialogic reading and a wide range of methods.

For detailed information and materials on these topics, those interested can use the platforms of FFB BW and Multilingualism Hamburg visit.