Forums

Hi,

I am from Mexico and live in the US.   We speak spanish at home, and when we had our first baby, we wanted to know how was the best way to raise a baby in a bilingual (spanish/english) environment.   We heard about Baby signs, and started teaching ASL to my baby daughter since she was 8 months old.     She learned a lot of signs as I talked to her using sings and spanish words and also she loved watching signingtime videos which are in english.   As the video showed each sign and its meaning in english, I usually translated it into the spanish word.  

We were amazed that she soon started to use the signs not just to communicate but also as a bridge between the two languages.    I could ask her to put on her shoes in spanish ("zapatos") and sign, and she will soon started to say "shoes", in ENGLISH!!

She started to pick up a lot of vocabulary in spanish and english using signs.  She would say either the word in english or spanish whatever was easier for her.    She knew that there was different "ways" to name an object, which soon understood they were languages.  By age two, she was able to identify the two languages, and would say if somebody was speaking in english or spanish.    She started speaking spanish fluently first (at home), but after a couple of months in school she was also fluent in english.   She almost never has mixed the two languages, and when she does, she knows it, and asks for the correct word.

Does anyone have a similar experience?

Have you tried using baby signs?