earthmama1 Posted March 2, 2014 Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 What is a good age to start teaching your baby another language besides their own? My daughter is latino and american. Her fathers family does not speak english well at all and my family does not speak anything but english! She needs to learn both fluently. Any suggestions? Also what would be a good program for me to use for her? Her father is horrible at trying to teach her he just gets frustrated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookiesandcream Posted March 2, 2014 Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 How old is your baby? Kids usually pick up languages faster than adults and so you wouldn't even really need to enrol her into a programme or make her sit down. You can talk to her in English and your husband can do the same with his mother tongue. I know a kid whose dad can speak Kannada and Nepali and her mother can speak Hindi and Korean. This is not including English. Now she already knows all those 5 languages. They just simply communicate with her with all these languages. She doesn't have to learn 1 language at a time and then go for the next one. She can learn it all at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmanuel Posted March 2, 2014 Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 Your baby's already learning, whether you've decided to start teaching it or not. A baby's mind is like a sponge, and it's absorbing information all the time. Not all kids begin to talk at the same age. Once that happens, your child's learning will accelerate and you can intensify his/her learning process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgreenwood Posted March 2, 2014 Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 A young child's brain is geared for learning language. Just speak to them and they will learn, no special props needed. I know a few people who had learned a language fluently when they were small, only to forget it when they got older from not using the language anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baburra Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 I think they start to build vocal communication skills at right around two years old, so I'd start there. I don't think there's any special lessons you can really do aside from just talking to the child and maybe having her watch some English kid shows like Barney. It worked for my nieces and nephews as they have become very fluent in English just by doing this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredkawig Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 Age one and up is usually a good time to practice and teach your baby words properly. If you mess with children and not teach them properly at a young age, they will carry this throughout their lifetime which can be consequential in adult stages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeliVega Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 Starts young. Babies are amazing at picking up minor traits and mimicking those movement or traits. The way you interact with your surroundings, the way you speak, the way you show your affections......babies learned about them without you knowing it. Which is why it is essential to watch your language and what you did in front of babies or children, as sometimes they absorbs new knowledge faster than an adult. For your case perhaps you could try something like interacting with your daughter in Spanish in the morning, then english for afternoon......or Spanish on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Then English on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday...... Try to teach her new words in both language too. Showing her an apple, and teach her the pronunciation of it in both the languages you use, something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extrafancyganza Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 A young child's brain is geared for learning language. Just speak to them and they will learn, no special props needed. I know a few people who had learned a language fluently when they were small, only to forget it when they got older from not using the language anymore.Exactly. Babies' brains are amazing. Just let it come naturally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gelsemium Posted March 6, 2014 Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 Babies absorb anything around them, so if we want to teach them a foreign language nothing like start talking to him in a foreign language, he will learn faster than we can expect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikao1o Posted March 6, 2014 Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 I've heard that it's best to have children listen to different languages as early as possible. Children tend to have clearer and more authentic accents if they grow up listening to a foreign language being spoken by a native speaker. I've heard of parents putting on French or Spanish TV for their young children to listen to, which can help their child develop excellent accents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wander_n_wonder Posted March 7, 2014 Report Share Posted March 7, 2014 I do believe that there is no such thing as starting too early to teach your baby another language. You need to get him used to hearing different languages as early as infancy days. Even when the baby cannot speak yet, he definitely can hear already, and his brain will be able to process the language that is surrounding him. This way, the learning process becomes faster and easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denis Hard Posted March 7, 2014 Report Share Posted March 7, 2014 Teach a baby a foreign language? How do you go about it? Having grown up in a place where the people speak several languages, the best way for a child to learn more than one language simply is by hearing that language spoken. It doesn't matter to what extent. Just as long as you speak it, the kid will learn it, without having to be taught. p.s The way babies learn languages is amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gelsemium Posted March 7, 2014 Report Share Posted March 7, 2014 Pretty much that Denis because babies can't be taught unless by the example, they don't have their rational capacity organized so that they can focus on one topic, they are just knowledge and behavior sponges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diprod Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 It depends on how old your baby is. Their mind is like a sponge they can easily pick up effortlessly though whatever you teach them anyway. That is actually the fun part of raising a child! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peninha Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 I don't think babies can be taught languages, I think babies can't focus on anything we tell them, they just learn from the example. Up from 3-4 maybe they have some abilities to learn in a structured way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misty1987 Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 In my opinion, from the moment they are born. If you think about it a baby learns its native language from observing and listening to its parents talk. So if you incorporate a 2nd language when talking to your baby, alongside your native language then surely theres the possibility they could learn both. Heres an example... Saying Hello immediately followed by Bonjour. As the baby grows they'll associate that they mean the same, especially if accompanied by waving. It would be a slow process admittedly but it would be a good stepping stone to learning a new language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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