The current work follows the premise that fictional oral narratives represent socio-emotionally and academically relevant communicative practices. Two studies are presented, aiming to (1) analyze the narrative skills of preschool-age Turkish-German dual language learners (DLLs) and (2) explore a peer-assisted approach to supporting DLLs’ narrative skills in early childhood education and care. The findings relate to the influence of dual language learning on narrative production and provide emerging evidence for the effectiveness of a peer-assisted narrative intervention approach.

Educating dual language learners (DLLs) and English learners (ELs) effectively is a national challenge with consequences both for individuals and for American society. Despite their linguistic, cognitive, and social potential, many ELsâ€"who account for more than 9 percent of enrollment in grades K-12 in U.S. schoolsâ€"are struggling to meet the requirements for academic success, and their prospects for success in postsecondary education and in the workforce are jeopardized as a result. Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures examines how evidence based on research relevant to the development of DLLs/ELs from birth to age 21 can inform education and health policies and related practices that can result in better educational outcomes. This report makes recommendations for policy, practice, and research and data collection focused on addressing the challenges in caring for and educating DLLs/ELs from birth to grade 12.

This series of wordless picture books aims to help children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) to develop their expressive sentence and narrative skills, through learning to tell each story. There are 10 stories that will be separated into two levels, geared towards advancing the child from simple to intermediate and complex sentences. The stories are written in the style of a film scroll and contain familiar events to ensure the story is understandable. The general formula of each story will be a disruption (often humorous) in familiar routines followed by resolutions. The accompanying guide will have strategies on how to teach and progress the child through each level and stage, and will have an additional skills section. Although this resource is primarily for SLCN, they could also be used for early years and reception. Kulvinder Kaur, Team Lead in Applied Behavioural Analysis (Intervention for Children with a Diagnosis of Autism), Gordon Primary School, Eltham.

"Updated with the latest research, this third edition of the bestselling textbook prepares SLPs and educators to support young children who are dual language learners and make informed decisions about assessment and intervention when a disorder is present"--

Comprehension of texts and understanding of questions is a cornerstone of successful human communication. Whilst reading comprehension has been thoroughly investigated in the last decade, there is surprisingly little research on children’s comprehension of picture stories, particularly for bilinguals. This can be partially explained by the lack of cross-culturally robust, cross-linguistic instruments targeting early narration. This book presents an inference-based model of narrative comprehension and a tool that grew out of a large-scale European project on multilingualism. Covering a range of language settings, the book uses the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives to answer the question which narrative comprehension skills (bilingual) children can be expected to master at a certain age, and explores how such comprehension is affected (or not affected) by linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. Linking theory to method, the book will appeal to researchers in linguistics and psychology and graduate students interested in narrative, multilingualism, and language acquisition.

The OECD stated in 2018 that language barriers are among the greatest obstacles to the successful inclusion of students with an immigrant background. Providing adequate instruction in the language of instruction at school, and offering learning experiences independent of the level of language skills is, therefore, an essential task of the 21st-century school systems. This book explores how music therapy can contribute to solving this challenge. It investigates the multicultural learning environment of an Italian elementary school that is characterised by students with multiple native languages and different levels of proficiency in the language of instruction. In some cases, students have difficulty following lessons and participating in social life. The children (5-8 years) receive music therapy in the experimental condition and regular school activity in the control condition according to a within-subject control group design, meaning that half the children started in the control condition and the other started in the experimental condition; they switched at the half-time point. Data on the children’s language skills and general behaviour are collected and analysed.

In recent years, narrative skills have been receiving increasing attention from researchers for their relevance in the development of language, literacy and socio-cognitive abilities. This volume brings together studies focusing on two key issues in the development of children’s narrative skills. The first part of the Volume addresses the issue of the interrelatedness between narrative skills and literacy, language and socio-cognitive development, as well as of the impact of narrative practices on the promotion of these different skills. The second part of the Volume addresses the issue of how early interactional experiences, particular contextual settings and specific intervention procedures, can help children promote their narrative skills. The studies span a wide age range, from toddlers to late elementary school children, concern different languages (Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew and Italian), and consider narrative skills and practices from a rich variety of theoretical and methodological approaches.