Babies and toddlers are like little sponges. You tell them a word and they’ll repeat it back to you. Sometimes in baby speak, but it’s fun to hear them say it organically a few days later.
When I was pregnant with my toddler, my husband and I agreed we’d be teaching him as many languages as we could.
We started off teaching my toddler American Sign Language with English and a handful of Spanish words starting just before 1 years old. I used ASL a lot when it came to feeding time to let him be able to tell me if he wanted “more” and “again” of the foods we were trying or if he was “all done”. My husband would name certain things in Spanish before giving it to him. We’d watch as he observed and absorbed what we were teaching him and soon he began to communicate back.
My toddler’s first spoken word was “agua” and that got my husband filled with giddy. My toddler used signs for “more”, “all done”, “want”, “help”, and “mama/daddy”. It was great to start to be able to have an open communication between us. It didn’t take long for him to start speaking the words along with the signs and soon I couldn’t keep up with teaching him signs fast enough as he took off with learning more spoken English and Spanish.
At first, we watched a lot of Ms. Rachel (IYKYK) and at the same time my husband and I would talk about what we’re doing, or as what experts call it: sportscasting. Then it became a game of repeating words and/or signs back and forth to each other. Once he was two years old, I allowed more leeway on the screen time and his language skills took off once he started understanding the shows he was watching a little bit more. He began repeating phrases said on the show and that’s when I knew he was ready to learn more.
I was reading a book called The Montessori Toddler by Simone Davies and in that book it explained that toddlers experience “sensitive periods” where they seek to learn/do certain things more than others. One is language. You’ll notice these sensitive times more when they are parroting the way we talk, repeating noises or watching the way our mouths move. This period of time is great to help introduce other languages as well. Continue to talk, name items/people/places, and read stories in the language you’d want them to learn and they’ll absorb, retain, and hopefully speak it.
Sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way you hoped it would. My son is more reluctant to learn Spanish now at two years old since he knows the difference. He’ll request only English or no Spanish when we try to teach him a new phrase or word. We don’t want to discourage him from learning Spanish so we’ve taken a step back and have taken a slower approach to introduce new words.
Side note: he’s more excited to learn Japanese than Spanish right now.
We’ve given him the option to learn a word in Spanish if it’s an easier way of saying it. For example “blueberries” was a hard one to get out for my toddler when he first learned the word so we asked him if he could say “arandanos” instead. He could pronounce that easier and would start calling it “arandanos” periodically. He’ll still use “ble-blerries” more often than not, but if he’s frustrated we’re not understanding him he’ll go to “arandanos”. Same with “uvas/grapes” and “agua/water”.
I love that we’ve given him options to tell us what he’s thinking in different languages. My husband is a polygot so he learns and speaks different languages daily. Sometimes he speaks in a mix of English, French, Spanish, and Japanese. I knew that my toddler would be exposed to that and I’m grateful for his father’s love of languages and hope it’ll be passed down to him.
I’m still teaching him ASL and making it more complex as he gets older. He also is beginning to understand that mommy can’t hear without her “ears” .(my hearing aids) on and has to wait or speak louder so I can understand him. I’ve been telling him to use his hands to sign what he needs when I’m deaf so I can help him faster. He is slowly getting that concept, but signing is a lot harder for those little fingers, especially when they’re not used to using them all the time. And since I’m not a full-time ASL user I too have trouble remembering to sign while I speak. But I know ASL is doable for toddlers because I follow Deaf creators on social media and watch as their CODA (Child Of a Deaf Adult)/ Deaf toddlers have a conversation in ASL with their parents. I’m determined to keep learning myself and try to use it consistently our home.
There’s never an age minimum to start teaching your kids new languages. I think having him learn alongside English has helped improve his communication skills because he at least knows how to name or say something in one of the three to four languages he’s learned so far.
I’ve been enjoying watching him grow in numerous ways and languages has been the most fun! He surprises me daily with new words and sentences. It’s been a great experience so far and I can’t wait to see what else he discovers.
