Cultural Differences in American and Southeast Asian Children's Psychosocial Development

Observance of Southeast Asian parents and their preschool children during English as a Second Language (E SL) classes suggests that rethinking commonly held developmental phenomena in psycho social development may produce insight into Southeast Asian culture and childrearing, middle class American culture and childrearing, and child development in general . Because it meets the needs of parents, the Des Moines Area Community College offers child care with E SL classes for refugees in the Ames, Iowa, area. l This article is based on observations from nearly five years of experience in the refugee nursery school with parents and young children. Children's ages range from two weeks to seven years of age. Most were newly arrived in the United States , with little or no E nglish ability.