Raising a multi- or bilingual child
You learn a language by using it. Research shows that using and having an extensive vocabulary is one of the primary assets for your child’s performance in school. As a general rule it is expected that children know approx. 10.000 Danish words prior to starting in school.
To give your child the best suitable starting point in a life full of education, it is important to expand his/her vocabulary at an early stage. Knowing the words in one language is a however a big help to learning them in another, and it is therefore essential that you speak to your child.
In the video ‘Language is a gift from mum and dad’ above, you can watch pre-school teachers and parents present examples on how to support language acquisition amongst children.
The film is produced with multi- og bilingual children in mind and is available in English, Polish, Arabic, Somali and a range of other languages. You can chooce language here.
It is a production by Filmkompagniet with financial support from Udlodningsmidler, Ministry of Children and Education and The City of Copenhagen.
Source: Lyngby Taarbæk Municipality
Speak the language
The Municipality of Aarhus has produced a number of videos about the importance of speaking with your child. The small videos are available in Danish, Vietnamese, Turkish, Somali, Dare, Arabic, Pashto, Kurdish and English. Search for ‘Tal sproget frem’ on YouTube to find the videos in different languages.
Biliteracy
Letting the children explore and use their different languages, you give them the benefit of having several languages.
Not only the spoken language, but let them see and use different alphabets, thereby showing the value of having this diversity of characters.
Biliteracy i Børnehaven was a danish project that was carried out in collaboration between Aarhus Municipality and the Language and literacy research centre at VIA University College in the period June 2011 - June 2012. The project was continued in 2012 - 2014.
The film 'Biliteracy i Børnehaven' is produced by Persona Film for VIA University College in collaboration with Aarhus Municipality and with support from Udlodningsmidler, Ministry of Children and Education
Resources for stimulating the language of children
Sprogpakken
Sprogpakken is a collection of resources for parents and educational professionals. In many cases the materials have been translated to several languages.
Available as videos and written material Sprogpakken let’s you find inspiration in the form of linguistic games, suggested dialectic reading, everyday conversational exercises and much more.
Sprogpakken was developed by The National Board of Social Services as part of a course of continuing education in the years 2011-2012 . It is presently hosted on emu.dk - the Danish National Learning Platform.
For more information go to: www.emu.dk/modul/tosprogede-børn
Sprogin
Sprogin.dk is a service developed to accommodate professional teachers and educational advisors. Parents can however benefit from the posters that are freely offered on the site.
Go to: sprogin.dk/artikler
Looking for books to read out loud to your child?
At The Danish Library Centre for Integration (‘Bibliotekscenter for Integration’) you can download a primer with references to materials suitable for reading aloud to your child.
The primer is made for parents, pre-school teachers/pedagogues and child librarians. It is available in many languages, for instance Arabic, Bosnian, English, Farsi/Persian, Polish, Russian, Somali, Turkish and Vietnamese.
In the primer you will find ideas on how reading aloud can become an integral part of your daily routine. , and receive quality suggestions on books to engage you and your child in the process.
Audio books for children in several languages
SPELL is an abbreviation for Structured Preschool Effort for Language and Literacy. As a result of the SPELL research programme ten children’s books in the SPELL-project have been made freely available as audio books in seven different languages: Arabic, English, Somali, Turkish, German, Urdu and Vietnamese.
The SPELL project is a joint research programme between international academia and researchers at the Center for Child Language.
When your child needs to read on her own
READ – Guides and videos in multiple languages
As your child undertakes the challenge of reading on her own, you can boost her reading competency in a number of ways - both before, during and after the act of reading.
READ is a resource made for the 0-3 year olds, older preschool children, children attending grade 0-2 and middle school students, with that goal in mind.
On the site you will find inspirational videos, guides, and other materials segmented according to age and with the aim of supporting your child’s reading proficiency.
The materials are available in Arabic, Danish, English, Farsi/Persian, Pashto, Polish, Rumanian, Somali, Turkish and Vietnamese.
The material from READ is available here
(Choose the grade of your child, then language)
The research project READ was made possible as a collaboration between the city of Aarhus Municipal, TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research and VIA University College.
Books for children - at the library
The Danish Libraries have children books in a variety of languages, that you can borrow.
In the case that a specific book is not a part of the collection of your local library, you can order it from another Danish library branch through Bibliotek.dk or Verdensbiblioteket.dk
Feel free to talk to the library staff at your local library - they are there to help you.
eReolen Global is your access to eBooks and audiobooks in primarily English from the Danish libraries. Here you find thousands of titles in English – both fiction and nonfiction for kids, teens and adults. Visit the website ereolenglobal.dk or download the app Libby.
