Learn about your bilingual baby
Today it seems as though the entire world is a ‘melting pot’, especially in Singapore. No longer are we necessarily bound by citizenship. Our professions, life-goals and the people we love give us cause to live and love in far-away places. And as a result, we are finding an ever-increasing need to raise our children to be (to some extent) bi-lingual.
Why is there a need
The need to raise your children to be bilingual (at least to some extent) can stem from any of the following reasons:
- You and your spouse are from different nationalities and have different native languages
- You want your children to be able to communicate with their grandparents who live in another country and speak a different language
- You live in a country that does not speak your native language (when in Rome…)
- You and your family are socially connected with those who speak a different language
How to teach a 2nd language
If yours is a home is a bilingual home, your baby will likely grow up ‘just knowing’. As their speech and vocabulary develop you and your spouse will most likely be conscious of teaching your child in a natural sort of way. But if that is not the case, there are multiple programs on the market to help you teach your child to speak a 2nd language. These bilingual curriculums primarily use pictures, sound and repetition to help children grasp the concept that there is more than one way to say ‘mom’ or ‘hello’ or anything else AND how to do so.
Recently, however, we have seen the results of research on when a child is capable of being bilingual. This research states that a baby’s ability to be bilingual begins before they can even speak. The research is based on a group of babies around seven months of age. The reports state that babies tune in to different languages based on the length of the word sounds and the pitch of the word sounds. The reports state that the babies can tell the difference between the languages spoken because of the length and pitch of the sounds they hear. Oh, yes, and they also tell you how you can make a million dollars overnight! Seriously!
I have no doubt the babies are tuning in to the different sounds. I have no doubt they are responding differently to the different sounds. Most every baby does. But to say a baby of seven months can distinguish one sound as Mandarin and the other as Portuguese…I’m sorry, but it sounds like some grant money was needing to be spent.
While several journals and magazines have published these findings, no one can say anything beyond the babies being more attentive to some sounds over the others. Aren’t they all?
So…
Being bilingual comes through hearing and speaking and association. A baby can recognize a sound long before seven months of age, but to be truly bilingual, a child has to understand what candy is before they can understand that ‘candy’ and ‘caramella’ are the same thing in two different languages.
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