What Works for Young Multilingual Learners: 15 Ideas for Addressing Challenging Behaviors

In my work with early childhood educators, I receive a lot of questions about addressing challenging behaviors and how to most effectively support multilingual children who are struggling with their behavior. Here are some of the lessons I've learned, along with strategies that can support your young learners.

Communicating Through Behavior

When children are new to an early childhood setting, they face many adjustments. In addition to being away from home, there are different expectations, ways of interacting, materials, rules, and more. At the same time, teachers experience a bit of uncertainty as they get to know each child's unique characteristics, abilities, and interests. For multilingual children, including those who are newcomers, there is the added challenge of being immersed in a new language and adjusting to different ways of doing things.

With all this newness, a young child might challenge a teacher by:

• Ignoring requests or refusing to participate
• Withdrawing
• Acting loudly or aggressively
• Using materials inappropriately
• Crying, tantrumming, or just appearing sad
• Acting out towards other children (e.g., refusing to share)

These behaviors might be expressions of the challenge of entering a program where your language is neither spoken nor understood. At the same time, similar challenging behaviors might also be attributed to factors other than language difference. Consider checking for some of these possibilities:

• Personality characteristics such as shyness or anxiety
• Stress and trauma outside of school
• Developmental or physical disability
• Temporary discomfort due to illness, allergies, or food insecurity
• A mismatch between family ways of communicating and what's expected in school

In other words, young children are complex human beings with any number of compounding factors that might affect their behavior. When these behaviors challenge adults, the first thing we do is look for causes and solutions. It may be easy to connect difficult behaviors with language differences, but there also may be more to each child's story. The strategies below are meant to help with a range of challenging behaviors from a range of causes.

Strategies for Young Children

The Universal Design approach is very helpful in preventing or addressing difficult behaviors when children are new to a program. This is a proactive approach that sets the stage for a more open environment that is prepared to support children from all Different Experiences, Cultures, Abilities, and Languages – D.E.C.A.L.

Here are some strategies that create a more welcoming environment that is prepared to support children as individuals so they are not as likely to need behaviors to communicate what's bothering them. These strategies are for teachers, assistants, and anyone that works with young children to facilitate adjustment to a new program.

1. Welcome each child gently and personally. Focus on building your relationship with the child before addressing classroom rules. Remember to smile!
2. Observe the new child. This allows you to identify areas of interest you can use to connect with them, support interactions, and help them feel comfortable in your class.
3. Spend some time just being present with the child. Sit side by side playing with blocks or drawing, and use nonverbal communication to interact so the child feels seen and supported even before they are willing or able to talk with you.
4. Assign one of the adults as the child's primary connection. This gives the child someone they can count on who can communicate with gestures or their home language as needed.
5. Pair the child with a classroom buddy. This is particularly important for newcomers. Explain to the buddy how they can help their new friend.
6. Ask family members to share key words and phrases that are familiar to the child. It is valuable to learn and use some phrases in the child's languages, including English, that will be familiar and comforting, such as words that connect to their interests, and one or two open-ended questions like "What are you making?"
7. Use images and videos to enhance comprehension. Visuals can support the child's learning and engagement, which is critical for children who are MLLs as well as children who may not be familiar with the content or vocabulary in the planned books or activities.
8. Give children more time with their interests, especially in the beginning. When a child is interested or focused on an activity, that may be a sign they are really learning something valuable to them. Allowing longer time empowers the child, builds their sense of agency, and honors the additional time it takes to process information, especially for MLLs.
9. Obtain copies of read-aloud books in children's home languages. Invite staff or family members who speak the child's language to read the story aloud in small groups before the story is read in English.
10. Make learning hands-on! Provide lots of 3-dimensional, hands-on play and learning materials so children have constructive ways to explore and express themselves as they are getting used to classroom language and routines.
11. Simplify the surroundings. Reduce background noise and visual clutter to create a calmer environment that makes it easier for new children to process speech sounds and visual clues that help them learn and adapt.
12. Use familiar materials or topics as a springboard. As you get to know children, try to start new learning activities with materials or topics that are more likely to be familiar to them. This helps children make successful learning connections that can lead to learning with new materials. For example, a child that shows interest in the block area probably knows words and concepts related to blocks. If you introduce a counting activity with blocks, they start from a foundation of their prior knowledge before moving on to counting unfamiliar items.
13. Use simple check-ins on a regular basis. As you get to know the child, give them easy ways to show you how they are feeling through visuals, colors, or props.
14. Keep in touch with families. It's important to keep families updated and also get the family's input on how the child is doing at home. If you need language support, speak with a program director to identify options for communicating with multilingual families.
15. Get additional support if needed. If challenges persist, you may need additional input and ideas. With a strong family partnership and information about the strategies you have tried, you can identify your next steps in looking for support.

Making a positive start in ways that build lasting relationships between adults and children will strengthen each child's confidence, communication, and connection — all key factors in preventing challenging behaviors.

Recommended Resources

• What Works for Multilingual Learners: 7 High-Quality Preschool Practices
• How to Support Young Children in Immigrant Families

About the Author

Karen Nemeth is an experienced author, consultant, presenter and advocate in support of improving early childhood education for children from diverse language backgrounds. You can find more resources and her featured titles at Language Castle.