Talking about language and emotions at home

Contribution to ITML3

http://latllab.canterbury.ac.nz/talking-language-emotions-home/

Talking about Language and Emotions at home

Parents are the first to introduce children in the world of sounds and words. While this is evident in a monolingual situation, multilingual families are often confronted with a lot of doubts and critics.

These parents need to be sustained in two roles.

• In their role as manager they should be able to make the right choices about languages spoken at home. They should know how to manage choices with a long time view. A lot of programs and accessible literature sustain this role.
• In their role as coach they should know how to improve skills taking into account well-being and motivation, helping to overcome obstacles. There is an absence of tools that take this up in an explicit way.

Tales at Home is a European project developing a digital tool that professionals can use to sustain parents in their role as coach this by:

- Making emotions, ideas and motivations visible

- Stimulating family communication

The tool is now in an experimental phase and will be presented May 2018. Afterwards it will be available for free use by professionals with sustaining online training. First results are available. www.talesathome.eu