Originally supported with funding from the Department's Follow Through Program which ended in 1994, the SEDL Follow Through Program has continued its development and enhancement of this effort to support early childhood education. The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory was a forerunner in bilingual education when it developed some of the nation's first bilingual curriculum materials in the mid-1960s for its language development approach. The program is adapted to the needs of the sites using these materials. These language development strategies are integrated throughout the school day with regular classroom content rather than as a separate language focus. The language development approach creates a positive learning environment through classroom arrangements, instructional organization, and management.
Language forms the core for both the strengths and weaknesses of students.
While ascribing to the notion that language is thought, the language development approach operates under the assumption that language is key to communication, as well as a carrier and expresser of culture. Research shows that children acquire language best through meaningful experiences. SEDL's language development approach has built-in provisions for integrating the language of the child into content areas traditionally disassociated from the study of English. Math and science lessons, for example, may be held in the language the child brings to the classroom or in English. There is always a language objective as well as a content objective.