The students of "Art Education Therapy" at Alanus University experienced an inspiring collaboration with our Kangaroo Program for early childhood language development in the autumn semester of 2023. Under the guidance of Prof. Béatrice Cron and Fabienne Margue, they explored the question of how artistic activity can support language acquisition in children.
Under the motto "Language is home", the art students were given an insight into practical pedagogical work. The focus was on starting language development at an early stage in order to make the most of the intuitive learning phase.
The students engaged in artistic and educational work with families from a wide range of backgrounds and experienced how they were able to open a door to language through creative forms of expression. Lucia Karrer, an enthusiastic student, emphasizes: "It is an enriching experience to see how people of different ages and from different cultural backgrounds come together and speak the same language through painting." Jakob Ruetz, her fellow student, adds: "I was touched to see that the children are not differentiated by origin and that the two families have moved from a politically tense relationship to an appreciative relationship through their children."
Barbara Kracht from Känguru describes the collaboration with the students at Alanus University as a matter close to her heart. She emphasizes that it is of great importance to her to support children and their parents on the not always easy path to integration in Germany. Looking back, she is touched by the openness of everyone involved in this adventure. The resulting collaboration created a space that allowed the children to have completely new experiences, as the project coordinator explains.
The continuation of this successful cooperation is planned for 2024, and we are optimistic about the steps ahead in order to continue to make a positive contribution to early childhood language support and integration.
