The University of North Texas’ Child Development Laboratory is opening a new bilingual classroom for three-year-old Spanish speakers.
The classroom is expected to open October 15th.
Dina Castro, who holds a degree in early childhood education says the idea for this program is to provide high quality early education for children coming from Spanish speaking homes with the long-term goal of bilingualism.
“We have the expectation to be able to support the children for 2 years while they are 3 and 4 years old at the CDL,” Castro said.
Castro believes it is important to incorporate bilingual programs such as this one so children in their developmental stages do not lose their abilities to speak, read and write in Spanish.
“We have families that are second, third generation that have already lost their Spanish,” Castro said “Precisely, one of the reasons why we are offering this program, is to prevent that from happening.”
Castro says this program is a way to provide support to parents and a way to show the benefits of bilingualism.
“Hopefully this program will also get more visibility in the community to bilingual families and make them feel supported and confident in supporting their kids to be bilingual,” Castro said.
More information:
- Price for enrollment is based on income (“sliding scale”)
- Contact dina.castro@unt.edu
Job positions available for bilingual students:
- Assistant teacher
- Receptionist (administrative and logistic information)
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