Language promotion in a day care center. A focus concept

Structure

Foreword

1. Our daycare center
1.1. We introduce ourselves
1.2. Our image of the child

2. Why language support?

3. The circle of addressees

4. The role of pedagogical professionals

5. Everyday integrated language support

6. Intercultural language promotion

7. Implementation of language support
7.1. Project work
7.2. The importance of music

8. Objectives of language promotion

Conclusion

1. Language

2. Language support
2.1 The need for language support
2.2 Everyday integrated language support
2.3 Intercultural language support

3. The role of the educator
3.1 The functions of the educator
3.2 Learning on the model

4. Conclusion

Bibliography

Foreword

Dear readers, We are pleased that you are interested in our priority concept of language promotion. In the following pages, we have made every effort to give you an overview of our work in the field of language promotion. For more general information, please read our overall concept, which you can get from us.

We have placed an emphasis on language promotion, as many children today do not have an age-appropriate vocabulary when they enter school. We want to make it easier for families, and especially for families with a migrant background, to integrate, and language skills are of fundamental importance. The aim is to make it easier for all children to make the transition to school, as specific prior knowledge and a basic vocabulary greatly increase school success. Children need an offer that enables daily stimulation and development, because in order to be able to open up the environment, children need the key of language.

Furthermore, we want to enable the children to appreciate social interaction through language and to establish social contacts with their peers and other people.

We would like to encourage you to seek the conversation with us and ask us questions that may arise from reading our focus concept - because that's exactly what we're here for!

1. Our daycare center

1.1. We introduce ourselves

The sponsor of our facility is the city of Düsseldorf (location changed), which, in addition to us, also looks after another 35 day care centers for children in Düsseldorf (location changed).

Our daycare center is located at the end of a cul-de-sac, i.e. in a traffic-calmed zone, in Düsseldorf XY (location changed). We are integrated in a new development area and in the immediate vicinity there is a sports club, a school and a football and playground. The catchment area of the day care facility ranges from XY to YZ, but the majority of our children come from the immediate vicinity.

Our facility has five mixed-age groups.

We look after a total of 110 children between four months and six years of age, who bring their own cultural background to our daycare center. This is especially important because we like to see ourselves as a multicultural institution.

Each group has a group room, an ancillary room, a washroom and a storage room. The small mixed-age group also contains a changing and relaxation room. Furthermore, we have a multipurpose hall, a staff room, an office, a workroom and a large outdoor area.

The design of the group and ancillary rooms is individually tailored to the needs and projects of the group, so that the children can use the rooms independently and feel comfortable. There are areas of action that encourage and support the children in their personal development, encourage them to self-educate and help shape them. There they do research, get creative, move and can withdraw.

In the house there is also a spacious hallway, which is another play and development opportunity for the children.

Our multipurpose hall offers a wide range of exercises for our children and has extensive equipment.

The Werkraum offers a large number of opportunities to become creative, artisanal and creative.

The outdoor area is very spacious. There are climbing possibilities, hiding places, a mud system, vehicles, sand toys and many opportunities to move and romp. Here our children also particularly like to play football.

We try to offer the children the best possible environment for their individual and social development. Our energetic specialists support and promote the children as much as possible.

1.2. Our image of the child

In our pedagogical everyday life, the focus is on the child. It comes to us as an individual personality in the institution, which has different life, experience, ability and knowledge contexts. These are respected by us and included in the support of each individual child individually.

In addition to its self-competence, such as the joy of discovery, curiosity, thirst for knowledge, motivation for performance, weaknesses and strengths, needs, interests and talents, it also brings its culture and family background with it. We appreciate the child in its uniqueness, accepting it with all its feelings, such as joy, fear, anger and sadness, its dreams, its hopes, its desires and needs and with all that constitutes its individual personality. This means that we experience the child as an equal partner who has his own rhythm of life.

It is particularly important to us that the child learns holistically and enjoys learning on his own.

We try to give our children as much freedom as they need, but at the same time our children should learn at an early age that their freedoms stop where each other's boundaries begin.

It is important to us that we support each child in his or her development in the best possible way, providing him with the necessary materials, structural and spatial possibilities.

All the above things that make up the essence of the child are prerequisites for creating a place where common life and learning can take place. Our children should experience stable and loving relationships with the educators, who support them in gaining trust and courage in order to be able to develop further in their personality.

2. Why language support?

Language is of great importance in our society, as it is the basic prerequisite for being able to actively participate in social life and to be accepted in it. Through the ability to speak, children can become independent and thus integrate into the children's group and, in the long term, into society. Of course, this is not only done by being able to speak, but also by being able to use this ability, e.B. by asserting oneself and expressing one's own opinion. Of course, this in turn also increases the self-confidence of the child, which is also of the utmost importance for the entire development.

In addition, it is a basic need of the child to understand and use language, as well as to move, play, learn and develop further. Because only those who master language are able to put into words wishes, needs, fantasies, experiences, thoughts, fears, opinions, etc. and communicate them to another person. This also shows us how close the connection is between the linguistic development and the emotional world of a child. Anyone who can say what he wants, who can express what he feels, who can ask what he wants to know and justify what he does not want, is no longer helplessly at the mercy of other people or certain situations, but learns to find and represent his own point of view. Those who can defend themselves with words do not have to use their fists. This shows that language can also facilitate social action.

Communication skills are of fundamental importance for the overall development of children and, in particular, for school performance. An important prerequisite for academic success is the ability to express oneself linguistically in a safe and situation-appropriate way. This means that language support in daycare increases the educational opportunities of all children and thus equal opportunities can be created. It is precisely for this reason that timely, as preventively as possible, language support is of great importance.

The sensitive phase of speech development ends at about five years. This means that it is particularly important to convey the language to the children particularly intensively within the first five years, because this is where the basic conditions for further language acquisition, learning and education are set. This means that we, the kita team and the parents, must take the important task of language promotion seriously so that our children can experience holistic support.

3. The circle of addressees

In our institution, language support is as integrated as possible to everyday life. This means that we give every child the opportunity to develop according to age and personality. We support and support the children with the best of our knowledge and conscience.

We are currently looking after children from nineteen nations, which means that a wide variety of mother tongues come into play. Due to this high number of children with different nationalities and different languages, however, it is particularly important to support them in order to integrate them into everyday life in the best possible way. In recent years, we have found that our multicultural children's groups are not an obstacle, but an enrichment for all children. The children help each other in particular and enjoy the different cultures.

4. The role of pedagogical professionals

In our pedagogical everyday life, language promotion has a firm anchoring and has a high priority in our overall concept. We attach particular importance to everyday language support, which you will learn more about in the later part of the concept.

In order to learn language, there must be a counterpart, a caregiver who is there for the child and deals with the child. Our educators are very keen to create speaking occasions for the children and to deal intensively with the children. This happens in the entire kindergarten everyday life. Special occasions are created.B, for example, during the welcome, during the meal, in ritualized morning and singing circles, picture book viewings, in free play or in dialogue with the kindergarten teacher. These rituals represent an indispensable security for the child's language development, as they return regularly and structure the daily routine. Especially the quieter and shy children here take the courage to express themselves and to participate linguistically active in the event.

In such situations, the sensitivity of our educators is required. It is important to promote and challenge a child in linguistic development, but not to overburden it. Therefore, the kindergarten teacher regularly tries to encourage and motivate all children to speak.

Since the relationship between educator and child is of great importance, the educator always tries to build or maintain this relationship through appreciation, empathy and understanding. Of course, the fundamental relationship between child and educator also affects the important role model function of an educator. The better the relationship with each other, the higher the role model function. Therefore, the educator is always encouraged to critically reflect on her own speech behavior and to become aware of it. The own motivation and joy of the language is only to the advantage of the children and the kindergarten teacher. Regular further training serves to refresh and deepen the acquired specialist knowledge. That's why we attach great importance to our educators attending further training at least two days a year. So that the whole team can also benefit from this, the contents of the training courses will be presented in a team meeting.

We avoid improving children in their language directly and thus making them aware of their problems, as the children could lose their natural joy in speaking. Instead, we correct the children e.B. in the answer sentence.

Furthermore, we show the children through active listening that their achievements and their stories are recognized. These are just a few factors that help to motivate the children to use the language and to use it in a differentiated way in contact with the environment.

Mutual respect is very important to us. Especially children with a migrant background should be recognized and valued with their cultural identity and multilingualism. The children's second language is fully accepted in our daycare center, but the language in our children's groups is the German language. On the way to learning the German language, we use every opportunity to support, accompany and promote the child in this development. Especially in the early stages of learning the German language, we try by all means to understand the child and do not exclude any way that makes it easier for the child.

Of course, the kindergarten teacher always maintains contact with the parents of the children in order to inform them of the current state of development and to be informed about the special features of the children herself, so that these can be addressed particularly well. The conversation with the parents is particularly important in order to promote the child in the best possible and holistic way.

5. Everyday integrated language support

As already mentioned, we attach increased importance to everyday language support.

Integrating language support into everyday life means that it does not take place in an individual support, but in the group of children. However, this does not mean that we do not take into account the personal developmental status and abilities of the children.

Rather, we consciously support the children individually in everyday actions, as we are convinced that it is crucial for age-appropriate language development to create speaking occasions for the children and to maintain, promote and intensify their natural joy in speaking and communicating.

We do not consider a stubborn speech training to be useful, as this would limit the holistic language promotion. We recognize this by the fact that language goes hand in hand with the areas of perception, motor skills, curiosity, imagination, thinking ability, feeling, sensitivity and creativity. Furthermore, we would have to take the children out of the natural environment of the children's group for a special language promotion training. There is a danger that the children could feel very insecure and become so aware of their speech problems that they could be ashamed of them. This would counteract productive language support, because it would be possible for the child to refuse in a training outside the group and possibly no longer speak at all. In addition, the child may feel that he is not good enough for the group or that he is dumber than other children who do not go to special language development training. We would like to avoid this "brand mark effect" here. The children's group itself offers enough and, above all, very good opportunities for linguistic action. Because in addition to the everyday activities in the group, it is always possible for the kindergarten teacher to deal with each child individually.

The prerequisites for everyday integrated support are the special abilities of the educators. These are very well sensitized to their role model function (see point 4). We are also particularly capable of observing an observation-based and everyday integrated promotion of our children's language skills. This means that we are guided by the individual linguistic developments of the children. In addition, we focus on the interests of the children when it comes to language promotion, so that they enjoy the learning process, because that is how language support brings the most. In this way, we also leave the children plenty of room for self.B exploration and their own experiences, which they make, for example, in dealing with other children, because in addition to the important role model function of the kindergarten teacher, the learning of the children among themselves must not be underestimated.

It is important for a child that he feels that he or she belongs to the others and is recognised in the children's group. Here they develop social skills and learn to communicate with each other on a daily basis. This means, therefore, that there should be a balance between the support of the educators and the self-exploration of the children.

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