image credit: children playing, via flickr

Both my husband and I are Spanish, but we would like for our son to learn English very early on. Sometimes we speak to him in English and we watch English dvds with him, but what else can we do to help our son learn English from an early age?

Dear Mama,

I would love to ask you all sorts of questions so that I could give you the best response to your specific needs: How old is your son? What kind of experience do you and your husband have with the English language? What would you say your English level is?…Since I don’t know all the details, I will try to make my response applicable to any Spanish couple who wants their children to learn English as their second language from an early age, regardless of how much or how little English the parents speak.

I don’t know whether or not you have read my previous responses in the Ask Sinews column, but I have already written quite a bit about how parents should provide opportunities in which a child NEEDS to communicate in another language. In order to do this, we need to seek out those activities in which the child will feel the need to understand and respond in a way that will allow him to be understood. Here are a few suggestions:

-School/daycare (your child will feel the need to communicate actively with his teachers and the other children)
-A nanny or other caretaker (the caretaker will speak to your child quite a bit and your child will feel the need to communicate for things like asking for water, getting dressed, eating, playing…)
-Friends or other children around your child’s age (at the park, after school activities, with your friends’ children, etc.)

Bear in mind that I haven’t mentioned English classes at all, since the idea is to expose the child to a second language in such a way that he learns it in the same way he learns his first language, based on trial and error. In order to do this, you’ll need to look for activities which force your son to ineract in his second language. If you want your child to be bilingual you should always make sure to follow the 20% rule, so that at least 20% of your child’s communicative activities (not counting the hours he is asleep!) are carried out in his second langauge. There is a long list of options:

-Sending your child to an all English school or daycare center. This is probably the most effictive option, but you should consider whether or not your English is strong enough to help with homework, meet with teachers, etc. You can also consider a bilingual school in which at least 1/3 of the classes are taught in English by native English speakers.
-Hiring a nanny or caretaker who speaks English to take care of your child, play with him in the afternoon or help with his English homework. There are programs that allow you to provide room and board for a foreign student in exchange for speaking with your child in English for a few hours per day.
-Sign your child up for extracurricular activities in English where he will have the opportunity to interact with other children. This is not always easy, but in larger Spanish cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Seville or Valencia there is a growing number of play-groups organized by English speaking parents. These cities also offer the possibility of finding other activities like storytimes, theaters and sports in English. Internet is a great tool for finding even the most unexpected activities (you can even sign your child up for baseball at the American School in Madrid!)
-Read bilingual books to your child. This works best when one parent reads the book in Spanish so that the child becomes familiar with the story and illustrations and the other parent (or English speaking nanny) reads the same book to the child in English. Getting to know the story, vocabulary, animals, etc and seeing the illustrations will help your child relate each object with the English word. This will also help him learn and understand the use of verbs. If you maintain this reading routine with your child, one day he’ll be thrilled to be able to read the latest books in English before everyone else.
-Vacations/camps/cultural exchanges in English speaking countries. This is especially important when the child begins to communicate in English but still lacks fluency because he doesn’t really see a need for English (Children don’t learn that language can have other uses beyond communication until they’re older, so many children may be reluctant to use English if they know they can be understood in their dominant language.) Another valid option is sending your child to an English camp in Spain with native English camp counselors. At these camps all activities are carried out in English and usually there are also several hours of classes per day.

There are many options but these are some of the best ways to stimulate communication so that your child will see a true need to speak English. We wish you th best of luck with your bilingual family!

Dr. Orlanda Varela is a Child Psychiatrist and the Coordinator of the educational project for Bilingual Families at SINEWS Multilingual Therapy Institute in Madrid. SINEWS organizes bilingualism workshops for parents in Madrid, as well as personalized speech therapy sessions to bilingual families with specific language development problems. For more information, please visit sinews.es.