Building on strong foundations is not just a strong beginning—it also provides for a strong ending. To do this with children, most of us need to invest in understanding what that strong foundation looks like.
Since this blog is about language learning (bilingualism), we can narrow our focus to what a strong foundation for language learning looks like, or better yet, sounds like.
Even doing this, however, there is often a common mistake— language is isolated from all the other ways that children are developing, as if it is something that blossoms without influence or impact from social, emotional and even (or especially?) physical development.
Children’s new words almost always match up with what they have going on in their development, be it social, cognitive, emotional or physical in nature.