When Linda M. Espinosa was a pre-school program director in California, from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, the primary challenge was to find the best way to work with young children from the families of Mexican immigrants. The children entered school knowing only Spanish, and their parents often did not have much formal schooling.

"It was challenging, but it was manageable," remembers Espinosa. Today, however, the challenges are much greater. "It's become much more multi-lingual and multi-cultural," notes Espinosa. "You might have children from Vietnam and from Cambodia, along with children from Mexico or South America?I think this is one of the really major issues facing early childhood education today."

"It's become more than just trying to understand a second language or a second culture. As a profession, we have to understand what the challenges are for educators to having an openness to a variety of cultures that they may not have any understanding of or background with," says Espinosa. And language is only part of the picture. "Teachers need to have an understanding that what they know about parenting, what they know about childhood, what they know about family, is not the only way. A person has to be fairly well-developed themselves to be tolerant and open to values that are different."

For the classroom teacher, there are some tried-and-true strategies that work well with every child, but are particularly important for children entering pre-school or kindergarten speaking a language other than English. "Get to know the child, and get to know the family, without making assumptions," says Espinosa. "Understand what coming in to a group setting is like for them. Ask: What is important for you, what do you want out of the education of your child, who is your child?"

Most importantly, she says, don't rush it. "Children are remarkably strong and resilient and energetic about learning new rules. It's often the adults who insist upon rapid shifts in children and families, and who may put undue pressure on them."

Espinosa, whose academic research has focused on bilingual preschool education, says that educators have an important role to play in encouraging families to continue to use their home language with their children. "Most families will say their first priority is for the child to acquire English, to do well in school, to adjust and to adapt," says Espinosa. "The trick for us as educators is to encourage the family to continue the use of the home language in the home, so the child can become truly bilingual and bi-literate, and not to give up cultural customs."

While families making the initial adjustment to a new country and culture may focus at first on fitting in, a few years down the road they may find that their children have lost the ability, and the desire, to communicate in their home language—with potentially harmful effects. "Long-term, the loss of home connections and home values, especially language, can create family disconnects. By the time a child becomes a teenager, there may be some problems in the child's ability to understand and communicate with parents. Adolescence is hard enough as it is," notes Espinosa. "If parents and children don't even speak the same language, it creates real problems in the family."

She notes that research has found that children who enter kindergarten not speaking English are at a very high risk of dropping out of high school. One reason is that some children do not ever acquire real literacy in either English or their home language.

Espinosa says she has been encouraged to find that most early-childhood teachers she speaks to about this issue are very receptive to her ideas. "Once you sort of talk about the issues and the importance of supporting families in maintaining the home language, and what we know about what happens to children and families, they are very open to it," said Espinosa.

Linda M. Espinosa is an associate professor in the College of Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her research has focused on bilingual preschool education, Hispanic famillies and children, the effectiveness of family support programs, and early literacy for non-English speakers. She is currently working on a school improvement project in inner-city St. Louis.

Susan Phillips is managing editor of Connect for Kids.