ELL News Headlines

We spoke with a handful of child development experts about what parents, teachers and other caregivers can do to help prepare and protect kids from all the scary news out there, whether it's fighting overseas, a school shooting, devastating wildfire or a global pandemic. Here's what those experts had to say:

When Peter Kahn became an English teacher at the Chicago-area Oak Park and River Forest High School, he was terrified of teaching poetry. "Poetry was my least favorite subject as a student, and my least favorite subject to teach as a teacher," he says. "I was terrible at it." So he asked a former student of his for help, who suggested the idea of a poetry slam — a competition in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience. "The student with the lowest grade in my class ended up winning it," says Kahn. "And I realized this is something powerful."

America is facing a “crisis of kindness,” according to science journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer, citing some of the harsh messages kids are exposed to, whether parents like it or not. In order to help children have the tools to navigate a sometimes unkind world, Moyer went in search of ways to counteract the forces that drag us down. 

With close to one-third of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students living in households where the primary language is not English, the district’s need for translation services is growing. CMS is four months into using a Massachusetts-based company’s call center to provide 24/7 language translation service to families. The district says it’s an expansion to language and document interpretation services.

A new theme park designed to bring the iconic show “Sesame Street” to life will have a host of accommodations in place to welcome children with disabilities when it opens soon. Sesame Place San Diego will be designated a Certified Autism Center when it opens to the public next month, officials said.

There's a growing consensus that the pandemic has taken a big emotional toll on young people. Among other troubling signs, children's hospitals across the country have seen more kids showing up in their emergency rooms for mental health reasons, seeking care for everything from severe anxiety and eating disorders to suicide attempts. The vast majority of Americans – 87% – are concerned about the wellbeing of the next generation, according to a new poll. In response to the crisis, a group of 17 national mental health organizations are calling for a new investment in school-based mental health support for kids. The group published a new report this week rating states based on how well they are addressing the crisis through programs and services in schools.

Dominique Marshall moved a lot in her youth. She called many different places "home" over short periods of time when she was 17. She learned at a young age that the public school staff and liaisons she grew up around weren't adequately trained to recognize homeless students.

The Spring ISD board of trustees unanimously voted to name Lupita Hinojosa as the district's new superintendent Jan. 28 — a little over three months since the superintendent search began. “I want us to have joy in the work that we do,” Hinojosa said. “Joy for our students that are coming to school every single day, and joy in the spirits of our parents and our community that they believe and they trust in us.” Hinojosa gave her speech first in English and then in Spanish. Aspects of the meeting were also repeated in Spanish, and in an interview with Community Impact Newspaper on Jan. 28, Hinojosa said she plans to keep making this service available at future board meetings.

On a recent cold Saturday afternoon, Iris Hernandez and Carmen Colon were helping six Morales children through the letters, sounds, and words in the book “DJ’s Busy Day” about a bunny and his fun-filled adventures in ordinary places – the grocery store, on the bus, in his home.

Dale Farran has been studying early childhood education for half a century. Yet her most recent scientific publication has made her question everything she thought she knew. "It really has required a lot of soul-searching, a lot of reading of the literature to try to think of what were plausible reasons that might account for this." And by "this," she means the outcome of a study that lasted more than a decade.