Learning French and at the same time developing linguistic skills in your mother tongue is not an easy task. As a result, allophone children often face learning and communication difficulties in kindergarten, which can negatively affect their educational path. However, solutions are emerging.
According to a study led by Sylvana Côté, preschool education services significantly help close the gap between children whose mother tongue is French and those for whom French is a second or even third language.
Professor Côté, from the School of Public Health of the University of Montreal (ESPUM), is director of the Child Health and Education Observatory and researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre. The study, with Ophélie A. Collet as lead author, was recently published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
“Being exposed to other children and a team of educators prepares children better for school than growing up in a home where neither French nor English is spoken. The period from one to five years is absolutely crucial for language acquisition. It takes a village to raise a child and, in this case, the village is a preschool,” summarizes Professor Côté.
Learn to communicate
The findings are clear. Allophone children who attended day care (or kindergarten at age four, although to a lesser extent) show better cognitive development, better social and emotional skills, and greater communication skills. These benefits are partly attributed to a sufficient level of general knowledge.
At the time of the survey, 6.1% of daycare children in Quebec came from non-native families, that is, 4,360 children. Of those, almost 14% stayed home before starting school, compared to just 6% of children whose first language was French.
The survey was based on the Early Development Instrument, a Canadian tool used internationally to measure children’s readiness for kindergarten. Teachers, who interact closely with the children, completed the questionnaires and provided information about whether the children had attended preschool services.
“It is essential to ensure that children whose mother tongue is not French are not disadvantaged by the shortage of places in preschools,” emphasizes Professor Côté. He adds that while bilingualism is a great mental exercise, the challenges of learning multiple languages are real. Children need support during this critical stage of development.
Academic Persistence
The best predictor of academic persistence is mastery of social, emotional, cognitive, and physical skills in kindergarten. Children who lack these skills are less likely to graduate from high school.
Among the 80,000 children surveyed, 11.2% were excluded due to lack of information, leaving 71,589 participants. Of them, 48.8% were girls and 25.6% were learning more than one language. It includes 13,981 bilingual children (English and French) and 4,360 allophone children, which represents 6.1% of the total. Within this group, 26% spoke Arabic, 18% Spanish, and 7.3% African languages. Others spoke several languages, including Creole, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian or Persian.
Address social inequalities
Previous studies have shown that quality childcare services benefit all children, especially those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Introduced in 1997 in the province of Quebec, Canada, Quebec’s subsidized Early Childhood Centers (ECCs) were designed to reduce social inequalities and facilitate work-life balance. Although this last objective has been achieved, there is still much to do to reduce inequalities. Only 30% of children have access to EPC, and there are 2.5 times fewer centers in disadvantaged areas.
The researchers adjusted their findings to take into account the families’ financial situation. “The study demonstrates the impact of preschool education services beyond the economic situation,” explains Professor Côté, noting that the best services are often found in wealthy neighborhoods.
“This study is a strong call to improve the quality of daycare services. It is a preventive measure to ensure better integration of children,” concludes Côté. This is the first study to specifically examine the impact of preschool services on the readiness of allophone children entering kindergarten.
Professor Côté also heads the research group on childhood psychosocial maladjustment. She plans to visit the children again when they reach fifth grade to determine if the benefits of daycare persist.
About this study
In addition to Ophélie Collet, the study’s researchers are Thuy Mai Luu, pediatrician at CHU Saint e-Justine; Pascale M. Domond and Tianna Loose, CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center; Cédric Galéra, University of Bordeaux; Alejandro Vásquez-Echeverría, University of the Republic of Uruguay; and Massimiliano Orri, Douglas Research Center, McGill University.
“School Readiness and Early Childhood Education and Care Services Among Dual Language Learners,” by Ophélie Collet et al., was published in JAMA Pediatrics on November 11, 2024.