Welcoming Families From Around the World

For this assignment, imagine the following scenario:
You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

I would be working for Head Start as this is what I am most familiar with.  The new child and her family are coming from Latvia, although I could probably choose most any country because I think that I would have to do my homework for any child coming from another country.  I would have to find out what language the family speaks and learn some key words and phrases to help them feel more comfortable and welcome.  I may have to seek out someone from a local college that speaks the language because we do not have anyone on staff that can help with this.  I would also want to schedule a home visit prior to the child beginning in the classroom as Head Start is required to do this and it is a great time to observe the child and family where they are most comfortable.  While I was at the home visit, I would ask the family questions about their culture, home life, and what goals they have for their child.  I would use the information I learned from the family and my own research to bring in materials that let this child and her family know that they are welcome.  I would also want to invite the family into the classroom to observe what goes on there and to encourage them to continue to volunteer.  I would hope that the preparations I would make and the actions I take would help make this new child and family feel welcome in the classroom and with me.  I would also hope that this new family would feel comfortable talking with me and the lines of communication would be open.  My preparations would also allow me to better understand this family and be able to be more responsive to their needs and the needs of their child.  I may be able to refer them to community resources that did not know about to help them or their child.  I have always found it interesting and exciting to watch the children whose home language is Spanish grow and flourish, so a child from another country would be very exciting and I would hope to find a special place in their lives!