Spanish for baby
Hi All,
Recently I was blessed with a baby girl. I would like to teach my daughter spanish along with our mother tongue tamil and english. She is now 2 months old. We live in a non-spanish speaking community. I request you to suggest some commands that can be given to her on various occasions and also the requests we ask the baby to do and baby related verbs and nouns. Also kindly let me know how I can teach spanish. Currently whatever I say to her, I say it in 3 languages( spanish - basic words) along with the action. Please provide suggestions.
9 Answers
It looks like I disagree with most of what has been said in this thread. My granddaughters learned American Sign Language early in life (pre-verbal). They were able to communicate their desires using sign long before they were able to ask for things verbally. They heard English around them all the time, but also learned the ASL from their parents.
Children have an amazing capacity to learn. It's nonsense to think that they will be confused by hearing more than one language around them.
If they can learn that the ball is "pelota" or "bola" and not think it's called a "pelota-bola", they can also learn that it might be called "ball", "sphere", "pelota", or "toy".
Start teaching your daughter all the languages you can use skillfully. She will thank you when she is an adult.
A baby acquires language. You can't teach it and they can't learn it. Bilingual children acquire language from context and exposure. If you want your baby girl to know more than one language natively, then sometimes you need to only speak in English, sometimes only in Tamil, and sometimes only in Spanish.
Start teaching your daughter all the languages you can use skillfully.
I agree with this, I also think that your child needs consistency. Try only talking English to her in the house and then only Spanish when you're outside or somehow make "zones" where you only use 1 language. I wouldn't try mixing the languages throughout the day, that's how babies do get confused. She'll pick up your native language from the rest of your family and from school when she goes 
.
It does sound very confusing. If wanted to teach the baby what this object is:
and I told her that it was a ball, la pelota, and the tamil version, how does she know that the object is not a "ball-la pelota-tamil version"?
I work in a bilingual preschool (English and Spanish), and we don't start teaching children their second language until they are at least three years old. Before children are three they are just learning language for the first time, and this by itself is a very important process. If you teach them more than one language they can be very confused and mix languages. There is a lot of research on this subject, and it supports teaching children their first language and then introducing words in the new language after the child has a solid foundation in it (usually about age 3). It also helps to have one person in the home speah English, and one speak Spanish as some of the others have suggested. I have seen children with speech impairments because their parents tried teaching them too many languages too early in their development. Raising bilingual or trilingual chilren is great, but you also have to be careful!
HI Soms,
You can't teach 3 languages to a baby, the baby learns the language from you, she speaks like you, whatever you say, she'll repeat it, that's why you can't teach her 3 languages at once, that would be so confusing and she won't memorize any of them.
Maybe when she grows up a little bit you can do that by pointing to the object and saying it's name in 3 languages, but that will take much effort and it won't be easy for the girl.
Learning 1 new language is a challenge for any young person, who already knows what does the word ''language'' means, now imagine teaching a baby 3 languages at once!
Maybe you can teach her only two, you speak in Tamil and your husband speaks in English
Since I speak American English (as my native language, although I can no longer say as a "native American" since that designation has been preempted), and my wife speaks "hyoujungo" (the "standard" dialect of Japanese [that of the Kanto region {since Japan has a variety of dialects}]), Our daughter grew up speaking both English and Japanese. My impression/assumption was that, in her mind, it was a matter of "talking with Daddy" and "talking with Mommy". Certainly, until the age of 5 or 6, she had no idea that she was speaking two different languages. Asking her "How do you say this in English/Japanese?" would produce total incomprehension. Extend this to three, or more, people, each speaking a different language and I think the same situation would obtain.
The interesting point is, if one (or more) people use different languages (at different times) can the child keep the differences straight? I have seen nothing in the literature that describes this situation (but I've only read a few books on the subject).
Babies imitate and practice every sound they can without meaning attached. But they will learn the language of the community they are living in. Parents alone cannot teach a language. Think of this: Parents I have met here in the U.S. that are fluent speakers of another language (both of them) have children that can understand and speak their parents' language BUT the children ALWAYS speak the language with a non-native accent. Chinese parents say that their children speak Chinese with an "American" accent. Parents from India say that their relatives at home say that the American children speak with an accent. It's hard to believe but ask around and you will find out. As Hilary Clinton said and titled her book. "It takes a village."
I wouldn't confuse a baby with three different languages, as learning a mother tongue is hard enough for those small cute creatures Maybe when they are 3 years old and start talking properly. When parents speak different languages it seems OK, but teaching your child a language you yourself cannot speak is a madness to me, sorry. Best regards!
