ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how a child of EAL status experiences the prime area of the EYFS curriculum. It focuses on specific strategies to ensure children are emotionally and socially supported, and through this support, practitioners can hope to achieve learning goals within communication, language, and physical development. EAL children, whether they are bilingual or monolingual, are involved in a number of difficult tasks. An initial solution to a problem is having the family provide a brief home history that practitioners can use to better understand the environment from which the child is coming. Emotional support is important because it could be argued that no learning can take place in the early years environment if a child does not feel personally and emotionally supported. Fortunately, children are fearless explorers and to engage a child in the setting more fully, practitioners start by providing children with a rich set of experiences.
