As you know, we at Bilingual Readers are huge fans of helping children learn a second language from an early age. That’s why we’re happy to pass along the following information about a new playgroup in Madrid organized by our friends at Sinews. This may be a great opportunity for those of you who are looking for an English language playgroup in Madrid.

New Playgroup in Madrid Led by Specialists
It is not impossible for your child to master English as a second language! In the global climate of today, it is essential that our children are well-equipped to succeed in a world that is rich in inter cultural communication. Many families who are planning on educating their children in English, or who are contemplating moving their children to a bilingual school, appreciate the opportunity to expose their children to a second language as soon as possible.
At Sinews we have designed a ‘Stimulating English Through Play’ group that allows you to familiarize your child with English and learn how you can support your child’s language development from as early as 18 months of age.
When it comes to bilingualism, you are in the best hands at Sinews; we are known for our expertise in bilingualism through our wealth of experience working with families of the international community.
The ‘Stimulating English Through Play’ groups are designed and run by our English Speech and Language Therapist, with the aim of stimulating English in children through the use of songs and stories to expose them to new vocabulary and phrases. Vocabulary is then reinforced through a variety of fun games and activities involving active participation to engage the children in listening and speaking English and provide ample opportunities to practice using new words in a variety of contexts within sessions.

The use of pictures, gestures and real objects provide a multi-sensory learning environment, making these groups highly accessible and captivating for all children, including those with speech and language difficulties, developmental disorders and hearing impairment.
‘Stimulating English through play’ is divided into two age groups:
18 months to 2 years and 11 months old (parents are welcome)
As parents, you know your child better than anyone else. This makes you the best people to nurture your child’s language skills. You are warmly invited to attend these sessions with your child, where the Speech and Language Therapist will share tips on how to support your child’s language development.
Time: 3 groups on Friday mornings from 10.00 to 11:00, 11:00 to 12:00 or 12:00 to 1:00 PM
3 to 5 years and 11 months old
At this age, when play begins to be shared, playing with children of the same age is really powerful for the development of the first and subsequent languages. The games will be especially designed to nurture your child’s communication skills.
Time: 3 groups on Friday afternoons from 4:30 to 5:30, 5:30 to 6:30 or 6:30 to 7:30 PM
Enrollment: First come first served basis via e-mail to talleres@sinews.es This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , indicating first and last names of the kids as well as his/her age and the day of the week you’d like to attend.
Place: SINEWS Multilingual Therapy Institute
C/ Zurbano 34 1º Izquierda CP 28010 Madrid.
If you have any questions please call 91 7001979.

Price: 25 euros per session or 80 euros per month (4 sessions).

image credit: padre e hijos, by jclabbe, via flickr

Hello, I’ve been reading about OPOL (One Parent One Language) and I found this page, which is very interesting by the way. I’m from Argentina and I’m married to a Dutch woman. We live in Holland with our children. I speak to them in Spanish, my wife speaks in Dutch and we speak English to each other. My oldest son is 3 and a half years old, and he understands everything I say to him in Spanish but he answers me in Spanish mixed with Dutch. Sometimes he begins to ask me something in Dutch until I correct him. He goes to preschool three times a week where they only speak to him in Dutch. How can I get my son to speak to me in Spanish? Should I ignore him when he speaks to me in Dutch or is it normal for him to go through a phase of mixing languages?

Thank you,
Marcos

Dear Marcos,

Your question is very, very common in bilingual families.
In your case, first I should clarify that mixing languages is a normal phase and can even be good for bilingual development. At this point you shouldn’t be worried. With regard to your main concern, it’s very common for children to respond in their stronger language (normally the language of the community they live in, since they receive much more stimulation in that language) when their mother or father speaks to them in another native language, regardless of how well they understand that language.
This is due to a very positive reason: your son is learning about communication and he has discerned two fundamental things about learning to communicate all by himself:
-He knows you understand Dutch because he has seen you speak to other people in Dutch and can tell that you understand what others say to you.
-He knows that sometimes it’s quicker and easier to use Dutch if he wants you to give him something or let him do something.

The trick of pretending not to pay attention to him when he speaks to you in Dutch can be useful only sometimes if you don’t use it too much. Use this only to let him know that you prefer for him to speak to you in Spanish because there is no way you are going to fool him. He’s small, but he’s smart!

So, what can you do? I would say the most important thing is to be aware that even if he doesn’t always respond to you in your language, he is learning Spanish in a much more active way (though it may seem more passive) than he would learn in a conventional language class. With a small push towards a ”need” to speak Spanish, he could go from not speaking much to speaking volumes.

The truth is that there is no easy and perfect trick but the following strategies might be helpful:
-The most important thing is to provide stimulation in the minority language so that it won’t be seen as a tool that doesn’t work as well as Dutch (see other responses to Ask Sinews to read about strategies for stimulating the minority language).
-It’s also important for your son to see you speaking Spanish to other people in Holland. This way he will see Spanish as a “priveleged” language for communicating with you. For example, speak with your family via Skype so that both you and your son can speak with each other and your family in Spanish. In any case, he should be present when you speak to your family and should have the opportunity to contribute from time to time.
-Buy games and books in the language you want to stimulate and make sure they are appropriate for his level so that he doesn’t find the experience frustrating.
-Travel with your son to Spanish speaking countries so that he can see how useful Spanish is and can see that Spanish is your strongest language. There it will be much more likely for him to speak to you in Spanish and he may just continue to do so when you get home. Visits from family members who only speak Spanish are almost as useful.

It’s truly important for you not to give up or get too frustrated, since what may seem like it’s not working now can change very quickly with the right kind of stimulation. In any case, your son’s linguistic background in Spanish from hearing you speak to him in Spanish will provide enough input for him to use it easily when he needs it, unlike those of us who learned languages later on in life. The same thing goes for the English he hears his parents speaking at home. Though the active development of this language may be less, an invaluable amount of passive learning is going on and this will be very useful later in life.

Best of luck with your trilingual family project!

Dr. Orlanda Varela
Child Psychiatrist at SINEWS Multilingual Therapy Institute
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

image credit: Put the camera down, Daddy (via Flickr)

A recent post on TinyEye.com, an interesting blog by Speech-Language Pathologist Marnee Brick, caught my attention. The article was originally written to help parents make the most of on-line websites for kids, but the language stimulation techniques she includes can be applied to any sort of interactive parent-child activities. Of course it’s also great advice for getting the most out story time with your favorite bilingual readers. Here are a few of our favorite tips:

• Wait and watch: Look at your child to see what he is looking at – then give it a name. i.e.) Rocket! You see a red rocket!
• Describe: Be the commentator who occasionally says, WHOOSH! … Ohhh bumpy ride!…That’s a big dog!….You picked blue! If you are consistent with what you comment on, your child may start to automatically comment on the same types of pictures or actions. For example, if you say 1 2 3 BLAST OFF or GO every time the rockets flies, your child may start to do that on his own. (Note from Bilingual Readers: Bilingual books are a great tool for being consistent with what you comment on in both languages. One of the many reasons to read your child the same story over and over again.)
• Silence: No need to talk all the time – leave space for the child to make comments, to process information, or to just enjoy. He is learning by doing. (Note from Bilingual Readers: This is a great tip books with flaps or other interactive gadgets, but it also applies to simple story books. Give your child a few moments of silence to take in all of the information on each page before moving on to the next one, and let him practice turning the page himself when he’s ready.)
• Copy Cat and Expand: To grow language, imitate what your child says. (He says, doddie – you day DOGGIE!). Then take one more step by adding one more word, as in BIG DOGGIE!
• Repeat x 3: If you were learning a new language, you would need to hear a word over and over again to really understand how to say it and what it represented. Keep this in mind when you are naming objects and pictures. For example, if the picture or object is a bus, you might casually say bus…bus… bus!… hi bus!!! (Note from Bilingual Readers: This is even more important when a child is learning two languages. Repeat, repeat, repeat!)
• Helpful Word: Use the activities as an opportunity to learn useful self advocacy and social words such as: hi, bye, help, again, more, done, yes, no, my turn, your turn, please, thank you…

Please let us know which techniques you find most useful, and feel free to send us useful tips of your own!