Teaching Toddlers Spanish

Teaching toddlers Spanish using the world around you, any moment can be ‘Spanish time- Bilingüebabies’

‘I could not possibly raise my child bilingual as I know nothing about the language’, why can’t you learn the language together if you don’t already know it? ‘He only speaks to me in English’, keep going, consistency is the key.

A toddler’s brain is in its peak of development, rapidly developing and curious about what is happening around them makes this development phase an ideal to teach them Spanish as you go about your daily existence.

I hope that some of the tips I share will inspire everyone who wants to raise their child speaking Spanish in an English speaking country.

Electronics
One of the ways I am instilling Spanish to my toddler is through the ipad. My eldest was born to read, he loved all kinds of books, the youngest however will have a peek and instantly reject a full sit down story. However he will tap onto a few of the Spanish apps, I have installed. At present I am building an online Spanish vocabulary flash card via the app FC maker by INKids. I started with the photos of the people in the family and labelled them with their titles e.g ‘Javier’, el hermano. The wonderful thing is that you record the labels in your own voice. I have spyed the toddler repeating them over and over. I can’t wait to build on this.

Toddler on the I pad

Reading
I am not going to give up with story time I just need to accept my toddler is unique, he learns at a different rate and I may need to change the way I do things with him. Sometimes I have our big Bert and Ernie puppets or as we call them Epi y Blas’ sit on my lap and I read them a book in Spanish. Eventually if he sees me doing this he will push them off my lap and get on himself, this enables me to hug him and ask him (in Spanish) for kisses and ask him some open needed questions in Spanish about the book I am reading.

Epi y Blas (Enrique y Beto) Ernie and Bert

Music and dance
Toddlers are active, curious and on the move constantly, I have found at times it is necessary to change an activity for a more upbeat one. I may put on an upbeat salsa tune and call out instructions for the toddlers to follow. Using myself as the model ‘ponte de pie’.. I will start with simple instructions like ‘camina’ ‘deprisa’ ‘despacio’ and then develop them to ‘caminamos como el burro’ , taking the theme of the donkey and then introducing the words to bray= rebuznar, making donkey noises as we trot, walk and gallop around the room. In this activity I am working on his coordination, getting him to exercise, extending his vocabulary and teaching him to comply with instructions.

I have a whole host of Spanish cd’s in the car, from nursery rhymes to South American folk and Spanish rock. This attunes their ears to hearing Spanish, the rhythms and pronunciations and yet also hearing the difference in accents. Soon you will find they have a favourite tune that you can both sing along to, I often have to put ‘Debajo un botón’ on repeat which helps when I need to put his socks on before a trip out (see lyrics).

Real life situations
I have family in Spain, they are not blood relatives but they are as close as they could be. This means at least once a week my toddler who spends the most time with me is able to hear mummy on the telephone talking to our Dominican friends about real life events. My best friend now lives in Columbia so we have regular Spyke conversations. If readers do not have family of friends abroad there are a host of sites that come up within a google search. Skype has an online community where you can post a message and find someone suitable to converse with. Maybe a family similar to yours in Spain.

There are loads of real life Spanish things you can do, get a Spanish au pair or nursery, find a Spanish speaking church, a Spanish speaking story time or toddler group and if these don’t exist, start one yourself. You will soon start to meet like minded people who will have kids and bang you have playmates for your toddler to converse and play in Spanish!

In my Spanish music classes ‘Bilingüebabies’ we have a standard core element of songs and activities that do not change each week because experts have proven that toddlers need consistency and like repetition. We then introduce new items gradually and my suggestion is that as with toys sometimes you can swap them and bring out old favourites so too with songs and books in Spanish. Catchy tunes and nursery rhymes help children remember, I love to drop a tune into the context of learning.

Learning languages in context in my opinion is the most natural way of teaching them. A walk to the park is a lesson in itself about changes in seasons or how about as you do your chores, ¿Quéhace mamá, mamáestápasando la aspiradora, por qué?What is mummy doing and why? Para quitar el polvo. She is getting rid of the dust. Then you can introduce a song ‘Esto es como quito el polvo/ paso la aspiradora’ or es la manera de…then back to your questions..¿Hace mucho ruido?..Introduce another song about noises. Cantajuegos has one ‘a mis manos..’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFIbypMSYK8 or make one up.

Fun, fun fun
Enthusiasm is infectious amongst younger learners and if you generally are having a positive learning experience they will too. If you are too tired to do much one day then just count the stars on the ceiling at bedtime (if you have sticky luminous ones like we do) or sing ‘Brilla brilla’ twinkle twinkle little star. If Spanish is not your first language or if you are just learning it then the key is little, often, repetition and practice. Create a special language time each day, whether it is at breakfast or bedtime to start with then build upwards.

A jugar A JUGAR vamos todos a jugar!

In the US you have a whole host of bilingual books and toys – make everyday a learning day!

Hasta pronto

Biography
Audrey Antoine-Hart is a Spanish and French teacher in the UK teaching languages at secondary schools (11-18) in South London. She has designed Spanish toddler 0-5 classes for mums and babies to learn Spanish together within the company called ‘Bilingüebabies’, motivated by the birth of her second child who she was and still is determined to raise bilingual. She also teachers Spanish at local nurseries and primary schools (0-11) and has recently starting writing a programme for children with Special educational needs (SEN). Audrey has Hispanic background and is reintroducing Spanish to her eldest child and raising her two year old toddler bilingually in Spanish. Such is her passion for languages, she is currently teaching herself German and hopes to study for an MA in multiculturalism and bilingualism. She lives in a blended, multicultural household and is raising her children to appreciate their mixed backgrounds.

For more info, see www.bilinguebabies.wordpress.com

Contact Audrey on bilinguebabies@gmail.comor follow her on twitter@bilinguebabies

Javier, Audrey and Lucas at the Paralympics, London 2012
Lucas first language is Spanish, he has plenty of time to learn English.