Oral motor skills are essential for actual speech. Gross and fine motor skills also play a special role in speech development.

Every movement experience supports the connections between nerve cells (formation of so-called synapses) and has an influence on the child's learning ability. The linguistic accompaniment of these movement sequences supports the connection of the nerve cells on the one hand and the child's language development on the other

Cognitive development refers to children's ability to think and their knowledge of the world. Various forms of cognitive engagement can be observed. For example, in "as-if games", objects are used symbolically for the respective game (a stick is a drill) or experiences are processed in role-playing games. Cognitive development is promoted by means of a pronounced and intensive interaction between the child, the respective caregiver and the environment. The interaction between caregiver and child, as well as "learning through discovery" with all the senses, is considered promising for the child's cognitive and linguistic development

Through social-emotional development, children learn, for example, to make contact with others or to regulate their own emotions (feelings). Emotional competence is made up of skill areas that develop in parallel and influence each other: Emotion expression (non-verbal and verbal), emotion knowledge (especially knowledge about triggers of certain emotions in oneself and others) and emotion regulation (internal and external strategies for dealing with emotions). Social competence refers to a set of skills and attitudes that align individual behavior with a collective action orientation. In guided games and individual play phases, children learn about their own behavior and that of others and how they relate to each other. The adult acts as a social learning model at this point.

The connection and interdependence of the various areas of development clearly shows that language education and language support cannot be viewed in isolation.

The scientific findings and practical experience gained in recent years show that it is above all systematic language education integrated into everyday life that promotes children's language development. A language-stimulating environment in everyday education offers many opportunities for this.

Language education integrated into everyday life is understood to mean comprehensive support for the language development of all children through the language-conscious and stimulating design of everyday educational activities. Everyday integrated language education is characterized by the fact that it is embedded in different activities and shapes the entire daily routine. Instead of predetermined materials and set times (as can be used in targeted language development), everyday situations are used in everyday integrated language development to stimulate development processes

On the one hand, a stimulating learning environment is crucial for successful everyday integrated language education and support. On the other hand, it is important to recognize and use opportunities for interaction and to motivate and support children in dialogues, independent reports and joint conversations, for example. This includes various forms of storytelling, such as experience reports, fantasy stories, picture book observations, as well as everyday routine situations, such as mealtimes, personal hygiene, pick-up and drop-off times, as well as guided and free play situations.

It is important that language and language education are accompanied by sensitive relationship work and that verbal and non-verbal linguistic communicative means of expression are equally recognized. It is often easier for children to find access to language initially through joint activities in which body language and communication with gestures and facial expressions can be used.

The language system is made up of various units such as sentences, words (lexemes), grammatical forms (morphemes) and speech sounds (phonemes). These units can be combined in linguistic communication to form an infinite number of utterances. During language acquisition, a child acquires the ability to understand and express these different units. In the process, they go through various parallel areas of language development that help them to acquire this skill.

Phonetic-phonological language development

This area includes speech movements, breathing and vocalization (phonetic) and the hearing/distinguishing of sounds as well as the rules according to which sounds are put together to form words (phonological).

Semantic-lexical language development

This area includes vocabulary and language comprehension. Words would not make sense if they did not have a meaning that is shared by the interlocutors. Words can be used to represent things or form ideas

Morphological-syntactic language development

The ability to combine words into sentences (syntax) and inflect words (morphology) allows us to express relationships and complex facts. Every language has its own grammatical rules

Pragmatic-communicative language development

The most important function of language is to communicate with other people. We use language as a means of communicating thoughts, feelings, experiences, etc. Pragmatic-communicative language development includes, for example, text comprehension, storytelling and talking to each other

In play and dialog with the children, so-called modeling techniques support the interaction between the adult and the child. Some examples of language-promoting behavior are explained in the following illustrations:

• What language-stimulating situations do you create in your educational program in which the children can talk about their experiences, for example?
• To what extent do you offer the children games, free and guided activities that take into account all areas of development related to language development?
• How do you incorporate the children's verbal and non-verbal linguistic communicative means of expression into your guided activities?
• What modeling techniques do you use to support the children's language development?
• How are the rooms in your educational program designed to stimulate children's language development?

Families' reports on their experiences of fleeing

A challenge that should not be underestimated is the reporting of experiences that families have had while fleeing. In these moments, educators are confronted with the situation of responding to the families in an appreciative manner, but also of maintaining their own limits of emotional resilience. A few excerpts from the interviews with pedagogical staff who work with families with refugee experience are intended to illustrate this:

"Yes, they wanted to tell us how they got here, what they experienced [...]".

"They have four to five families who somehow tell them about disasters, I can't name it any other way, so really something really bad and then you can catch your breath again, because you can get the positives from other families again, but here in this one hundred percent refugee experience, it's difficult."

"Where I keep realizing: you have to be careful with closeness and distance. [...] I've also had situations where a family was deported, for example, and that was really awful for me [...]."

"So we can't absorb everything that the parents have experienced here, it's not possible, we had to say first of all: "No, it doesn't work, we can't", because it wasn't something that you just hear so quickly and then when you see the children and see the families and then get a picture of it, it's not possible. You can't do that."

"Healthy mental hygiene, I'd say. Simply because you also experience things, especially with people who have experienced flight, that is not tangible for us, that is also not imaginable for us [...] and you sit there and have to swallow first and simply need (...), yes, then the necessary distance. And I think that's something that's quite difficult."

Mental hygiene can help educational staff to deal with this stress and overcome it.

Audio file - Mental hygiene

Families in special circumstances, such as those who have experienced flight, are usually faced with multiple problems. This can include the ongoing asylum procedure, finding accommodation, dealing with the authorities, learning German, looking for a place in a daycare center, illnesses caused by life circumstances, the death of relatives in war zones or while fleeing, children with mental health problems, etc. Educational staff are not always able to deal with everything and provide advice in every situation. Some excerpts from interviews with employees of educational services for families in special circumstances are intended to provide an insight into the situations on the ground:

"However, the families... they have multiple problems. And I have to set myself apart and say: yes, I would like to help you now, but you really need to go to someone else. And then it's like this again: ok, we have to go to someone else... he might not even speak Arabic. Yes, and that's more of an obstacle for them."

"Well, they are always at risk of deportation. [...] Yes, because there is so much uncertainty. Where will I end up now? Do we have to go back? That has also changed. Because the Syrian families and Iraqi and Afghan families have now often arrived in apartments if they had the right to stay here. That was also an aspect of the project, that you first have to deal with all the status stories in asylum law. We were completely new to that. That was completely new territory."

"So, yes, we hadn't done that before and it was also very difficult for the team here to deal with such things and to deal with all these statuses, asylum law, toleration. Who is entitled to a place in a daycare center now? Yes, everyone who is here. But the question is with what right to stay. And that is always. Coming to terms with it. To categorize that. Those who have arrived in the apartments already have the prospect of staying here in the city and want to do so. Yes, but. That was also a big hurdle at the beginning. Understanding that. The legal and judicial aspects behind it too."

When working with families who have experienced flight, it can be useful to enlist the support of specialists from other professions in order to be able to refer the families quickly and easily. This relieves some of the pressure on educational staff and often offers families more tailored advice and support services.

The evaluation results of the bridge projects show that with regard to the psychosocial stress of children with refugee experience, 3 out of 4 children exhibit behaviors that could indicate increased psychological stress (e.g. anxiety or attention problems). However, there was no increased evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder. Overall, the children should be given special attention by the educational staff to help them process what they have experienced. In the chapter "Recognising and dealing with abnormal behaviour", you will find detailed information on the emotional stress of children, how behavioral problems can be classified and when children and families should be referred to counselling services

Educators working with children and families with refugee experience see the language barriers, particularly between them and their parents, as a major challenge:

"Of course, sometimes there's also the language barrier, that you might not have someone with you or have someone available who can translate this offer or a letter. Sometimes it's just letters that aren't understood properly because of the language. That also often causes difficulties."

"So the biggest challenge, if I didn't have my federal volunteers, would be the language. That is... It's actually the biggest barrier, especially when the mothers arrive at the parent-child group for the first time without their partner who speaks German. That's a big hole."

Meetings with the parents should nevertheless be used as much as possible to build up a relationship and also to exchange information with the parents, for example about the processes of educational work or the development of the children.

The clarification of roles and an overarching, organized collaboration can help pedagogical staff to master the above challenges.

Role clarification

The first step is to clarify the role of the educational staff in their day-to-day work. A coordination of educational services for families with refugee experience formulates this as follows:

"You can't do everything. But they are often not forced into this role, but they automatically take on this role because the parents have a great deal of trust in the local women. And that's more my job, to simply say: Ok, what tasks do you have? What can you do? And what should you not do, i.e. if you would like to do it and so on. And you also have to learn to set yourselves apart from time to time. This one case was interesting, because they immediately realized that it would be good if we could say at some point: So, here's your lawyer and here's the advice centre, there's also an Arabic language service. We can give you the information, but we can't accompany you everywhere. There are limits to what we can do."

This role clarification should be clarified with the employees before they start working and should be reflected on regularly. A job description can be created to support this.

Reflection questions

• What role do the employees have within the educational offer?
• What role do the employees see themselves in the performance of their pedagogical activities?
• What expectations are placed on the staff by the families in the educational services?
• How can staff be strengthened in their role?
• How can they be supported in respecting the boundaries of their role?

Regular overarching exchange with each other

Depending on the focus or the number of pedagogical offers, joint meetings of the employees take place more or less regularly. Under certain circumstances, the educational staff work at different times in the programs and either do not see each other at all or perhaps only at handover times. Some staff who work in different programs have never seen or met each other. In order to enable pedagogical staff to share their experiences and challenges with each other, it is advisable to hold joint exchange rounds or group meetings at regular intervals. Sharing common experiences can strengthen employees, for example, by showing them that they are not "alone" with the challenges they face. They can also work together to find possible solutions to help them overcome these challenges. In order to make these group meetings effective and efficient, it is a good idea to define a topic for each meeting in advance so that questions, requests or support options can be considered in advance.

It may also be a good idea to invite external experts from other professions to these meetings, who can provide advice on various topics.

Reflection questions

• Do the employees have a need for exchange meetings? What could be a suitable rhythm for these exchange meetings and where can they take place?
• What challenges do the educational staff face in their educational practice?
• What opportunities are staff aware of to support families or to process their own experiences?
• Which employees do not meet each other during the course of their work?
• To what extent can these exchange meetings be remunerated (e.g. for honorary staff)?
• What options are there for anchoring these exchange meetings in advance as an integral part of the activity?
• Which external professionals from other professions can be invited to these meetings (in relation to the challenges)?