Child starting who speaks no English

[Guest colechin]

I have a little boy who will be starting Nursery with us after Christmas. Although mum speaks some English, the little doesn't and mum has informed me that she only speaks Hungarian to him. This will be the first time the Nursery for the Nursery to have a child who speaks a foreign language.

 

Could you please advise me what I should put in place before he starts. I have looked at dual language books, but because I do not know any Hungarian I'm afraid of pronouncing words incorrectly. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Mouseketeer]

Sorry not really much help, Just to say we are in same situ, first EAL child, they visited one day and started the next so no time to prepare, we are finding that using our visual time table is helping prepare for what's happening next ..... A little support has been needed to change routines but on the whole we're finding things much easier than expected. But as you say it's the pronouncing the words wrong that's worrying us.

[catma]

It won't matter if you can't speak hungarian...just ensure that you talk talk talk with him, use very clear contexts for activities so that he can understand even if he doesn't have the language. Maybe use picture cards so he can indicate things like toilet needs.

 

He will probably be in the "silent period" this is quite normal and can last several months. In this time the child will be processing the language around him and tuning into english, so don't expect him to be using english immediately - the understanding comes before the language use usually. It can help to have a few words like a greeting and it really won't matter if you can't pronounce them exactly right, my bilingual kids used to howl with laughter sometimes at my dreadful pronounciation (I recall days trying to get cantonese right!!) and I know my spanish speaking parents would really slow their spanish down so I could keep up with my rusty O level skills.

 

You'll find that the children won't have any concerns and will probably natter away quite happily in 2 different languages once they get settled together!!

 

You can also get very good resources from mantra lingua https://www.mantralingua.com/uk/home.php

 

Cx

[finleysmaid]

learn a bit of makaton if you can and teach it to everyone then all the children and adults can talk to each other. I am amazed that some settings find this situation unusual...i am so used to it now! we currently have urdu/hindi/pushto/korean/german/french/polish/russian speakers ...plus irish/canadian and english!!.....i can however now say toilet in most languages :rolleyes:

[Guest]

I would add to the above advice using gestures/sign to reinforce understanding. I use a lot of makaton with my polish child which really helps him and me to get over what I want to say. I also made a little laminated book for him with pictures of a toilet, drink, food etcso he could indicate his needs to me.

Deb

 

[blondie]

we have lots of children with eal - mostly chinese and polish - some speak a little english, some quite a lot and others none at all.

there are some great resources on every child a talker sites - also went on a course last week about this

said can be upto 12 months before child talks so might not speak before they leave you

encourage parents to continue in first language

make sure you communicate as clearly as possible

have an environment that is free from stress and pressure

support a child during the silent period

use body language, visual support, facial expression and positive reinforcement (thumbs up etc)

continue talking,persistently include in small work group work,vary the types of questions you ask, try and include another child, accept non verbal responses, praise all responses, use photographs of activities / time lines to support children

hope this helps x

[Rea]

I saw a lady called Sue Bristow speaking last week, she's worked in Birmingham for years supporting EAL children.

She said if you're going to be reading a particular story or doing an activity to send it home first so the child gets to take part in their home language first, then when you do it they already know what the story is and so they can just concentrate on learning the english words.

The analogy I came up with was when I went to see Macbeth with my son. He'd studied it for A level but I didnt know it, so he gave me a synopsis of it on the way to the theatre. That meant I was able to watch and listen with an understanding of the play without needing to know what all the words meant.

Its not always bout having dual language books around, especially if we dont know what the words mean. :1b

[Guest ShelleyT]

I would suggest creating a visual timetable. It really really helps our EAL children, and we have quite a lot of them! Expect the child to be frightened and be prepared for this to come out in a physical / screaming way or silence. A few children just get on with it but if he is the only one I imagine it will be a challenge to begin with. Maybe he could just come for an hour for the first week? Some of our Nursery EAL children do that as they get quite upset at times. Good luck!

[Guest colechin]

Thank you everyone for your responses and ideas.

I have now started taking pictures in and around the nursery to make in to a small book for him and for a visual timetable.

I will defiantly send home the reading book before reading it at nursery.

I will soon be visiting websites looking for resources.

Does anyone use a talking pen? this is something I have heard of but, do not know if it is worth investing in.

[Inge]

a word of warning about the duel language books... not all are accurate or good translations .

 

We had a few given to us when we had some EAL children with us...and the children were able to take them home for parents to read at home before we shared... one parent came back and said the story in her mother tongue was different to the one in English... some of it was similar but a lot had no correlation.

 

Not knowing the language it is hard to check if this is the case for all. but we did find a couple of the books that had variations to the English versions when we had parents read and check them for us. We were lucky to have parents who would be able to translate the English book while reading to their child so we could use it in the setting and the child had some idea of the story.. when we had several children with one language I used to invite a parent in to read a story to them in a small group in the setting ,

[Rea]

Books in another language still tend to be written right to left, front to back like an English text, rather than from roght to left too!

[catma]

Thank you everyone for your responses and ideas.

I have now started taking pictures in and around the nursery to make in to a small book for him and for a visual timetable.

I will defiantly send home the reading book before reading it at nursery.

I will soon be visiting websites looking for resources.

Does anyone use a talking pen? this is something I have heard of but, do not know if it is worth investing in.

 

The talking pen is FABULOUS!!

[Guest]

I don't want to sound silly, but we will be having our first child with EAL after half-term, my question is, do we need to write an IEP for him? He doesn't have any additional needs, but I feel we need to have something for all staff to work from so we're all doing the same sort of things. Thanks

[nightingale1]

Hi! I don't think you need IEP for child with EAL if there's no additional needs which would require other professionals to be involved. We had several children who didn't speak English and we still have. Ask parents for some phrases you can learn to use e.g. mummy will be back or nappy, garden,drink etc. I had a crash course in many languages and it's very rewarding when the child responds to what are you trying to say. Use basic language in English and you can try to use visual timetable so he/she can get used to the routine of your setting. Photos are brilliant so use them a lot at first. Also ask parents if they speak any English at home and if at all possible ask if one of them can start speaking English to the child. Hope this helps,good luck!