![\"apache-girl-smiling\"](\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/story-39.jpg\")
One of the reasons April Noline enrolled her infant daughter Emma-Jean in the San Carlos Apache Kid Child Care Center was that it provided instruction in the family\u2019s native language, Apache.\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b<\/p>\nOne of the reasons April Noline enrolled her infant daughter Emma-Jean in the San Carlos Apache Kid Child Care Center was that it provided instruction in the family\u2019s native language, Apache.\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very happy that the teachers were teaching the Apache language in the classrooms,\u201d Noline said. \u201cIt\u2019s not something you hear every day coming from young children.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bThe center is a member of First Thing First\u2019s signature program, Quality First. The program partners with Arizona child care and preschool providers to improve the quality of early learning.<\/p>\n
Research demonstrates the importance of language development to a child\u2019s future academic success; in fact, a child\u2019s vocabulary, attention and general knowledge at ages 3 and 4 are good predictors of reading comprehension levels at ages 9 and 10.<\/p>\n
In order to develop language and crucial pre-literacy skills, children need to hear words often, from a variety of caregivers and in a context that is meaningful. In addition, young children who have a strong foundation and are literate in their first language (the language of their family or community) are more successful in acquiring a second language.<\/p>\n
Noline is pleased that her daughter\u2019s language skills blossomed from when she was a baby to when she entered kindergarten. Now that Emma-Jean is in the first grade, she continues to use simple phrases in Apache and teaches her mother new words.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmma-Jean has taught me words that I\u2019ve never heard, so I was surprised and excited that she was picking up the language so quickly,\u201d Noline said. \u201cHearing her also encouraged me to want to speak my language more as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma-Jean can say simple phrases, names of animals, plants and vegetables as well as teaching her mom how to talk about the weather and the names of the sun, moon and stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been key in helping build and connect Emma-Jean\u2019s relationship with her grandparents, who are fluent in the Apache language,\u201d Noline said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"