Duluth, GA, Feb. 01, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ChildCare Education Institute® (CCEI), an online child care training provider dedicated exclusively to the early care and education workforce, offers CHD102: Dual Language Learning in the Early Childhood Environment as a no-cost trial course to new CCEI users February 1-28, 2019. The United States is an amazingly diverse country, and if you work in child care or education long enough it is almost guaranteed that at some point you will welcome into your classroom a child and family who don’t claim English as their home language. In some areas, non−native English speakers may make up the majority of your students. Whatever the case may be, it is important for all early childhood educators to be prepared to meet the challenges of guiding a child toward English fluency while maintaining fluency in (and respect for) their home language and culture. Young children do not meet the definition of fluency in any language. Whether or not they are native English speakers, all young children are language learners. A dual language program is one in which students learn content and literacy in two languages. The overall goal of a dual language program is for children to become academically proficient in two languages. In the early childhood setting, proficiency means helping children develop conversational skills as well as a solid foundation of early literacy skills. In this way, children can be prepared to learn, read, write, and speak fluently in both languages during their elementary school years and beyond. Young children have much to gain from dual language instruction, cognitively, academically, and socially. Furthermore, a dedicated, thoughtful dual language program brings the center, families, and other community members and organizations into close cooperation with shared goals. Rather than viewing dual language learning as a challenge to be overcome, early childhood educators should value it as the opportunity to enrich a program. Researchers refer to the first five years of life as a “window of opportunity” for learning language. This includes infancy, when children learn language even though they do not speak. Thus, in recent years, a strong push has emerged for dual language education. This includes teaching foreign languages such as Spanish and French to young native English speakers. But thanks to this window of opportunity, researchers and educators also recognize that the early years are a great time to ensure that children from non−English speaking households gain important English language knowledge without sacrificing fluency in their home language. This course provides early childhood professionals with strategies and tools for helping young children develop language and early literacy skills in English as well as the children′s home language. Participants will learn the benefits of "dual language” learning for young children along with key strategies for increasing family engagement and promoting rich, dual language development in the classroom. “The need to train in dual language and ESL increases each year across the United States,” says Maria C. Taylor, President and CEO of CCEI. “Educators will learn strategies and methods for working with children and families in order to meet the goals of dual language education.” CHD102: Dual Language Learning in the Early Childhood Environment is a two-hour, intermediate-level course and grants 0.2 IACET CEU upon successful completion. Current CCEI users with active, unlimited annual subscriptions can register for professional development courses at no additional cost when logged in to their CCEI account . Users without subscriptions can purchase child care training courses as block hours through CCEI online enrollment . For more information, visit www.cceionline.edu or call 1.800.499.9907, prompt 3, Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. EST ChildCare Education Institute, LLCChildCare Education Institute®, a division of Excelligence Learning Corporation, provides high-quality, distance education certificates and child care training programs in an array of child care settings, including preschool centers, family child care, prekindergarten classrooms, nanny care, online daycare training and more. Over 150 English and Spanish child care training courses are available online to meet licensing, recognition program, and Head Start Requirements. CCEI also has online certification programs that provide the coursework requirement for national credentials including the CDA, Director and Early Childhood Credentials. CCEI, a Council for Professional Recognition CDA Gold Standard™ training provider, is nationally accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC) and is accredited as an Authorized Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).
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Ashley Sasher ChildCare Education Institute 678-942-1531 asasher@cceionline.edu
