Read Aloud initiative is supporting multilingual children’s literacy in their native languages

Every child should have the opportunity to read in their mother tongues. By law, everyone living in Finland has the right to maintain and develop their own language and culture. Strengthening one’s native language also supports the learning of other languages, such as Finnish. Therefore, supporting reading for multilingual children and their parents has long been part of Finnish Reading Center’s nationwide literacy work.

The Read Aloud guide helps professionals from different fields to easily inform families with children about the importance of reading. For example, nurseries, libraries, maternity and child health clinics and other social and health professionals can use the material freely in their work.

The language selection of Read Aloud guides has grown over the years. New language requests come in regularly. The language choices have been supported by statistics on the mother tongues of young children in Finland, as well as survey responses from professionals across Finland, to ensure that the guides help as many families as possible. The content of the guides has also been tailored to the needs of the target groups.

Strengthening native language skills is also strengthens the child’s sense of their own identity

The need for a Read Aloud Guide in Ukrainian arose as a result of the Russian war. The Ukrainian guide was designed together with Ukrainians who had come to Finland as refugees, in cooperation with the Deaconess Foundation’s Friend Families. It was important for the Ukrainians to be told in the guide how reading together in their own language can bring security in a crisis situation.

‘Reading books in Ukrainian is important for children, and it also strengthens their identity. When parents read aloud to their children, it helps them to express themselves in their emotional language. This, in turn, strengthens their self-esteem and everyday interaction. So, it is undeniably a good thing that parents and children can read together in their own language!’, comments Maryna Kulykova, who participated in the family work at the Deaconess Centre.

Another wish was to get information about libraries to all Ukrainians. Those familiar with the Finnish library system had been impressed, but not everyone had yet found their way to the library. The library is an important place that plays an important role in the integration of many new Finns. An important institution in supporting multilingual literacy is the Multilingual Library, which serves all Finnish public libraries with its transfer collections.

Anyone working with families can be an ambassador for reading

‘Based on the feedback we have received, professionals would like more help in talking about the importance of reading in different languages. They regularly turn to us for materials in different languages and new language versions are often requested’, says Vilma Tammelin from the Finnish Reading Center.

The Read Aloud website also provides free of charge guides for professionals working at early childhood education and day care, as well as family and child health nurses. The aim is that every professional who takes up the guide will have access to information on supporting multilingualism. It is important that everyone recognises the importance of a strong mother tongue.

Find out more about the Parents’ Guides and other materials: luelapselle.fi/read-aloud

Celebrating Multilingual Month 21 February – 21 March

Multilingual Month is a celebration of mother tongues and multilingualism. It takes place between International Mother Language Day (21 February), and World Poetry Day and International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March).

Multilingual Month, Satakielikuukausi in Finnish, has been celebrated in Finland since 2015. Multilingual Month is organised by the National Multilingual Library: satakielikuukausi.fi