About CommuniKids

Our mission: At CommuniKids, our langauge-immersion, play-based programs and classes are designed to equip our students with the linguistic, interpersonal, and intellectual skills needed for success in today's increasingly interconnected world.  We value multilingualism, multiculturalism, family participation, and diversity. 

Our story: CommuniKids begain as a small, parent-run cooperative preschool in 2003 and has developed into the DC Metro area’s premier children’s language center and preschool.   CommuniKids was the area’s first language center to offer classes for children ages 18 months to 8 years of age in Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Arabic, and is currently the only children’s language center to offer a full-time, Spanish and French-immersion preschool in the greater Washington area.  It is this record of innovation that sets CommuniKids apart as a leader in BOTH early childhood education AND second language acquisition.

Our research and methods: CommuniKids founders and staff members have participated and presented at the National Conventions for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  In fact, CommuniKids has just been chosen to present a half-day workshop entitled “Using Play to Promote Second Language Acquisition in Children 18 Months to 5 Years Old” at the 2011 NAEYC Annual Conference in Orlando, FL.  NAEYC is the nation’s leading professional organization for early childhood educators.  CommuniKids was also chosen to present a similar session at the 2011 conference of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages in Denver, Co., and are one of a handful of presenters at this conference that are currently working in the field of early childhood language acquisition. 

Founder and Director of Curriculum Raul Echevarría recently attended the ‘Think Tank on Global Education” at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.  In this annual meeting the leading thinkers in education and language acquisition explore the full scope of global competencies that students will need to succeed in the 21st century and how to promote them. Mr. Echevarría was recently featured on an NPR segment about language acquisition.

CommuniKids Preschool was recently nominated as Best Preschool Program in Washington Family Magazine's "Best for Families 2011" Guide.

Benefits to our approach: Studies have proven that young children can acquire a second language as easily and naturally as they acquire their first. That’s why CommuniKids has built its curriculum around proven research advocating a play-based, full-immersion approach: we don’t teach language as a subject, we use language as a means by which children play, laugh, and enjoy fun activities, all 100% in the target language, so that their language acquisition occurs naturally and joyfully.   

CommuniKids programs are also designed to comply with the national “Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century” developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).   We recognize that language learning is a long process and encourage children and their families to be lifelong language learners.

We have also implemented the most current “best practices” recommended by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in the design of all of our activities.  The NAEYC promotes the philosophy that children learn best through play.  CommuniKids’ activities are the same type of activities children experience in their preschool or kindergarten classes, but they are conducted entirely in the target language.  Activities include movement, music, games, arts and crafts, puzzles, puppet play, and storytelling.