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Bilingual Babies!

Teaching Your Child a Foreign Language

By Katherine Bontrager

In much the same way, Ana Flores learned English. Flores, who now lives in New York, was born in Cuba and came to the United States at the age of 2. Although she quickly learned English at school, Spanish was the only language spoken at home. "I am fully bilingual and feel that has only been an asset for me during my academic experience and thereafter professionally," she says. "My husband was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, and he speaks Spanish fluently. We feel that it's important to keep that going for our children. With the way the world is now with everything global, it can only be beneficial for her. We also want to maintain our culture and language."

It is also important for Flores' daughter to be able to communicate with her extended family, some of whom still live in the Dominican Republic, while others closer to home may speak only broken English. "We do not want the language to be a barrier," she says. "It is important to us she be fully bilingual. Based on everything we learned and read it makes sense to do it now rather than waiting. We felt it would be more difficult or confusing if we waited."

 

In order to start instilling the use of Spanish, Flores sought a very talented nanny who agreed to only speak Spanish to her young charge. "A lot of the books we read to my daughter are in English, and television is also in English," she says. "We knew she would pick the language up regardless, so we wanted to do something where she would feel almost forced to speak Spanish and keep that going. She knows who she needs to speak to in what language, and with her babysitter she knows she has no choice [but to speak Spanish]."

Now, Flores is amazed at how well her daughter speaks both English and Spanish at the ripe old age of almost 3. "She pronounces things better in English than in Spanish," says Flores. "She picked up the English faster than the Spanish, but she is definitely a conversational speaker – as much as a child can get who's not quite 3."

Want to see more?

• Books, Babies and Brains: A Few More Good Reasons to Read to Your Baby
• Baby's First Words: Speech Milestones and Tips for Parents
• Brain Builders: Stimulating Activities for Your 3-Month-Old Baby
• Talk about it!

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