Dolphin 4: language support in kindergarten

Language support is also the task of the kindergarten

In addition to social education, language promotion is one of the most important tasks of the educators in the kindergarten. During the time in kindergarten, your child will constantly expand its vocabulary and language skills, whether by playing, singing, doing gymnastics or looking at books. The educators use the circle of chairs, for example, to encourage storytelling or to practice holding conversations. The first forms of communication rules are also taught. The little ones learn to let each other finish speaking, to listen and to wait their turn.

Numerous rhymes, songs and stories are part of the daily routine of the kindergarten. Words, terms and their pronunciation are easy to memorize through rhymes and repetitions.

When will Dolphin 4 be held?

Language support in kindergarten is supported by the compulsory language test “Delfin 4”. The test usually takes place two years before school enrolment. In a two-stage process, the participating children’s language skills and thus their ability to go to school are tested in a playful way.

What happens in “Dolphin 4”?

In the “Dolphin 4” language test, your child should demonstrate their language skills with a board game that deals with the topic “Visit to the zoo”. It tests how well your child can express themselves and communicate. Under the supervision of an educator and a primary school teacher, your child will be asked to repeat certain sentences and describe pictures. In addition, it should be able to understand and solve tasks in the game and understand game instructions. With the help of the use of “artificial words”, i.e. terms or even complete sentences that do not actually exist, it is intended to check whether your child stresses and pronounces words correctly. Examples of such artistic terms are, for example, “Jakedu” or a sentence like “When the spoon laughs, it hops into the middle of the day.

What happens if a child fails Dolphin 4?

If your child is found to have insufficient language skills in the “Delfin 4” language test, they have the opportunity to repeat it. If it still doesn’t turn out better, better funding will be discussed. Your child will be registered for a pre-school course that focuses on individual support. Two years before the start of school, deficits can usually be successfully compensated for in cooperation with trained educators.

Criticism of “Delfin 4” and language support in kindergarten

The use of “Delfin 4” to determine whether special language support is necessary in kindergarten is often criticized. Some of the criticisms raised are:

• The game situation is foreign to the children. For this reason, even linguistically well-developed children are often inhibited and sometimes cannot make a sound during the test.
• Some children refuse to repeat the “nonsense sentences”, which leads to a reduced score.
• The tests do not always take place under the same conditions.
• The little ones are not allowed to help each other during the procedure and only one child is allowed to speak at a time.
• The educators and teachers involved are not very familiar with the children, which makes it difficult to adequately assess the language level within 30 minutes.

In principle, language support in kindergarten is paid for by the state, but there are still too few trained educators who can teach and at the same time teach the correct way to learn a language. As is so often the case, there is a lot of catching up to do in this area.