We are excited to share resources to get multilingual children and their families talking and playing, even during COVID-19 (https://bit.ly/PlayIdeasMultilingFamLab).
These resources are a result of a collaboration between MSc-SLP students from the Communication Sciences and Disorders program, Paris Begrand-Fast, Rebecca Epp, Marisa Lelekach, Tara McPhedran, Romy Pistotnik, Kira Shelton, Krista Toohey, and Taylor Wilson, and Ms. Lucero Vargas, SLP, from Multicultural Health Brokers, and I, Dr. MacLeod.
The project emerged from a conversation between Ms. Vargas and I. As a clinician, Ms. Vargas works with families who have children with communication disorders and who speak languages other than English at home. My research focuses on these diverse families. During the closure of schools and daycares due to the pandemic, I reached out to Ms. Vargas to see what I could do to help. Ms. Vargas noted that families needed simple, easy activity ideas that would provide opportunities for children to engage in language development and play. Our MSc-SLP students were up for the challenge and brought their SLP training, experience with kids, and creativity to the project.
The purpose of this project was to develop these activity ideas and share them with the Multicultural Health Brokers. While all instructions are provided in English, activities were created to be accessible for a variety of languages and cultures.
Multilingual Families Lab Familles Multilingues 