As many parents in Eindhoven know, raising multilingual children can be a challenge.

Heritage Language Schools Eindhoven (HLSE) is therefore organising a webinar. It’s called Understanding Bilingual Children. Dr Franck Scola will be the speaker at this event.

Dr Scola is an expert in his field. He lectures at the University of the Mediterranean and the University of Paris-Dauphine in France. He’s also an expert consultant, working with various organisations.

These include not only UNESCO and the London Academy of Diplomacy. But also the French National Education and the Agency for Teaching French Abroad.

Misdiagnosis

Dr Scola writes training courses for psychologists and speech therapists too. He knows that multilingual children can be misdiagnosed. What is a genuine speech impairment, and what shouldn’t concern parents?

During the webinar, Dr Scola will outline different types of multilingualism. He’ll dismantle some preconceived ideas about it. And he’ll put several notions about childhood bilingualism in a new light.

These notions are related to not only cognitive and academic development. But also medical, speech, and identity development. The discussion is aimed at multilingual kids’ parents and caregivers. But others interested in the topic are also welcome.

Also a fundraiser

But, the event has a dual function. HSLE wants to raise money. That’s for the start-up costs of a non-profit foundation based on their current activities.

HLSE’s goal is to support and bring together mother tongue (“heritage language”) programmes. They want to increase the programmes’ visibility. HLSE also wishes to provide these programme organisers with networking and professional development opportunities.

Also, HLSE arranges outreach events to inform the public about multilingualism. And they facilitate the addition of languages to the Eindhoven Library’s International Children’s Book Collection.

Details

The Understanding Bilingual Children webinar will be on Thursday, 3 June, from 20:00 – 21:30. Attendance costs €12.50. You can register here.

Upon registering, attendees can submit a question. The organisers will do their best to get answers to as many of the collected questions as possible. That will be during a Q&A with Dr Scola after his talk.

The organisers will donate the attendees’ fees to the non-profit Stichting Francofilous. This is the French heritage language programme for primary school students in Eindhoven. It’s part of the HLSE network and is co-organising the event.

Heritage Language Schools Eindhoven ensures that people can easily find heritage language program information. They help families, Dutch schools, and education advisors. The HLSE website has a list of the available programmes. It also has news, event info, and other resources.

Read more about Dr Scola’s qualifications, his Be-Rise organisation, and his book.