At-Home Interventions

Parents: you can encourage your child's language and literacy development in both languages by:

• Reading to your child and listening to your child read in whatever language(s) they are most comfortable with
• Supporting your child's use of their first language– maintaining it will NOT inhibit literacy in their second language
• Avoiding speaking to your child in the second language if you are not completely fluent; it may do more harm than good
• Identifying readable text in the everyday environment (posters, street signs, grocery store labels, etc.) and helping your child read it
• Encouraging your child to write as a method of play (writing a shopping list, letter to someone, etc.)
• Allowing your child to scribble and draw, which improves their writing ability
• Engaging in activities with your child that utilize many different words, such as singing, playing cards, or doing puzzles
• Linking second language material to first language material

School-Based Interventions

Language of Instruction Interventions

Second language literacy interventions can be carried out in either the bilingual child’s native language or second language. It may seem counterintuitive to try to improve a child’s second language literacy by developing their native language literacy. However, studies have shown that interventions that improve a child’s native language reading and writing also improve the child's second language reading and writing. This is especially true for young bilingual children who are still learning their native language because building their grammatical and vocabulary skills in their native language helps to build a better language foundation for learning a second language.