No one is too small for big ideas. The city of Dresden wants to revolutionize early childhood language support and can point to initial successes with its "Sprachräume bilden" project. Girls and boys receive 45 minutes of targeted support in small groups of six to eight children three times a week for a year and a half before they start school - in a playful and familiar environment. "Suddenly, the relative silence at the lunch table turns into non-stop chatter from children who have never said anything before," said one teacher, describing her experience.
Nine facilities in three districts of Dresden, where a particularly large number of families with foreign roots live, are currently taking part: Prohlis, Gorbitz and Johannstadt. In some daycare centers, up to 80 percent of the children come from other countries. It is not uncommon for there to be an almost Babylonian confusion of languages. "Children then talk to each other in their mother tongue and groups form," says Sabine Bibas, Head of the Office for Child Daycare, explaining the problem. They then often lack the motivation to learn German.
