Foreign Language Immersion In a Child Care Setting In an innovative new program designed to expose children to a wide variety of learning experiences a group of two and three year olds in a child care centre in Brisbane's inner north are starting to speak basic French. The Lyndhurst Early Learning Centre in Clayfield, has teamed up with AlphaTykes foreign language schools to offer Brisbane's first ever foreign language immersion program in a child care setting. The play based French lessons occur twice a week and are designed to mimic the natural stages a child goes through when learning to talk, in line with this the children cover counting, family and animals. To reinforce the formal language lessons centre staff incorporate French songs, rhymes and games into the children's daily activities and art works and displays in the rooms are labelled in both French and English. Managing Director of the language school AlphaTykes, Ms Leann Webb says introducing children to a foreign language is one of the greatest ways to lay the foundation for lifelong learning and academic achievement. "Bilingual children show a greater speed and flexibility in certain learning situations," she said. "They grasp linguistic concepts, such as a word having several meanings, well in advance of monolingual children. Martin Corkery, the Director of Children First Learning Centres, the operators of Lyndhurst, said the language program was perfectly suited to the centre's philosophy of play-based learning that offers opportunities to explore, discover and create. "Children learn by listening, seeing, imitating and practicing and their capacity for absorbing languages is at its peak in these early years." "The language immersion program provides an enriched language learning environment where children can experience another culture through music, arts, language and exploration," he said. Has your child care service been involved in an interesting program or learning initiative? If so, please let us know by visiting social.careforkids.com.au, we'd love to hear from you.

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