Welcoming Families From Around the World
I am working
in an early childhood setting and received word that a child of a family who
has recently immigrated to the United States will be joining my group soon. I
want to prepare myself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, I have
been enrolled in this course about diversity and have learned that in order to
support families who have immigrated I need to know more than surface facts
about their country of origin. The student and her family have recently
emigrated from the country of Nepal. Five ways in which I would prepared myself
to be culturally responsive towards this family would be to research their
customs/traditions, have pictures and art work up around the room reflecting
Nepal’s customs, have common simply pictures with labels (using both languages),
have all translation programs set and ready, find toys, music, books that the
child would find familiar, and try to plan activities into the day that would
reflect her culture. My hope is that these preparations will benefit my
student, her family, and me. I believe that they will benefit my student
because she will be around familiar things that she can relate to. The
environment won’t seem so foreign to her. Her family should benefit as well
from the familiar environment and also by seeing how I have invested my time
and effort into learning about their country. Lastly, by investing time in the
preparations, I should benefit by having a student who adjusts quicker with
familiarity and by setting a positive tone with the family. A mutual trusting
relationship should evolve between us all.
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