Editor’s note: This post was originally published on Dec. 7, 2009. On occasion, we re-publish older posts that we deem are still relevant to ensure our new readers are exposed to all of our content. 

Although sometimes I long for a few minutes of silence, the reality is that I love the fact that my three-year-old daughter, Vanessa, talks non-stop. Her vocabulary in Spanish is extensive and I know it has to do with the fact that I’ve talked to her since she was in my belly.

In fact, many studies show that the amount of conversations and the variety of words that children listen to have a direct influence on the pace at which they develop language skills. Children that are exposed to both more words and uncommon words in their conversations with adults tend to develop broader vocabularies.

So, how do you do this? Expose your children to a vast variety of experiences making sure you turn them into an opportunity for them to learn:

MEAL TIME

From cooking terms to the origin of a specif dish, the chances to teach your children tons of vocabulary abound in the kitchen. Just the other day, after Vanessa finished eating ice cream with her new-found-love, cajeta, she asked me to please wipe her hands with a wet towel because she hates being sticky. So I did and we went finger by finger saying their name in Spanish a couple of times for each hand.

PLAY TIME

Some children are more prone to have a conversation if they have something concrete to talk about, such as a toy or another material thing. Vanessa makes up all kinds of stories about her plush animals and she loves to tell me all about them. I encourage her to do so by asking probing questions and making relevant comments.

TRAVEL TIME

Oh, how I love to travel! I think there’s no better way to learn than this one. When traveling with children, it’s a good idea to learn about the place you’ll be going to before the actual trip. This will probably make them more eager to get there and will make them pay better attention to their surroundings once there. We recently took a road trip about six hours southwest of Denver to a spot famed for it’s healing hot springs. A few days before the trip, I showed Vanessa the route we were going to take on a big map I have hanging in my office and we talked about what we would find there. She was fascinated before we even got there and now, a few weeks later, she still talks about the trip.

ROUTINE TIME

As you probably know by now, children crave routines and I do too because they offer great opportunities for interaction. Every afternoon, after I pick up my daughter from preschool and we’re in the car ready to go home, I ask her about her day. We have great conversations and she’s come to expect them by now. Some times she has a funny story to tell me about what happened, other times she shares a song she learned in music class, and still others she has a question about something one of her teachers said. And, as we talk about all these things, her vocabulary continues to expand.

What are some of the experiences you like to turn into learning opportunities?

One of the things that really throw people off when they try to speak to Sabrina (my Spanish dominant toddler) is the fact that she really doesn’t understand English. In fact, I have to remind friends and family that she speaks and understand more Spanish than she does English. We have done a pretty good job of speaking to her 100% of the time in Spanish. Sure, Spanish and English flow back and forth between my husband and I (and friends), but we have made it a point to only speak in Spanish to her and it has been quite effective.

In fact, if I decided that tomorrow we would only speak English she would have a hard time. A couple of times I have “tested” her to see if she understands when I say things in English like, “Sabrina, please touch your head” or “Sabrina, would you like to ride your bike?” My little nena just stares at me as if she’s wondering why I am speaking with those words. So, of course, I reiterate it in Spanish and we are back in business.

As most people who have kids know, strangers will come up to your little one and try to talk to them. Since we live in the U.S (and even though they may hear us speaking only in Spanish) people generally approach us in English. Many times Sabrina is shy, like most toddlers, but I really do not think she knows what they are saying when they ask her things like, “What are you drinking?” or “What is your name?” These are questions I ask her in Spanish and she answers without any hesitation. Sometimes, she will attempt to talk to strangers (like a cashier), but always in Spanish. Unfortunately, most of the time they don’t understand so they also don’t realize she’s speaking to them. This happens a lot with other children who only speak English.

It breaks my heart to see her try and communicate in Spanish and gets no response. This, I know, will be the main reason why she will eventually choose to speak more English as she gets older. It saddens me that at the tender age of two she is attempting to communicate in Spanish, yet many times she doesn’t get a response. It is adorable to see how she seems to think that everyone else speaks Spanish, too. This is when I act as a translator, but the conversation doesn’t seem to flow.

One of my goals is to see my daughter speak with her peers in Spanish, though I wonder how likely this will happen since most of her peers in the Spanish-immersion daycare she is enrolled in come from English-speaking homes. What I am getting at is that we, parents who want to raise multilingual children, have constant battles to face.

Personally, the questions I get from strangers that remind me how much people, in general, do not get how difficult it is to raise a bilingual child in a country, like the U.S, where we have nurtured a monolingual identity include ones like, “So, when do you plan on exposing Sabrina to English?” This question alone represents how little people know about language acquisition. The response I wish I could have given: “We live in the U.S., she is exposed to it everyday!” but instead I grinned and said, “Oh, her friends do a pretty good job of teaching her English (at her Spanish immersion school).”

How do you handle these kinds of questions? How have you dealt with the times your little one isn’t acknowledged when she is speaking a foreign language to a peer or a stranger? Do you translate?

{Photo by mamanat}

Recently, I wrote about ways to enrich your bilingual child’s vocabulary over at our sister site, SpanglishBaby, and one of the tips was to try to make everything into a topic of conversation. Coincidentally, the same day, I got the product pictured above which is a table game about exactly that: questions – from the thought-provoking to the trivial – to get a conversation going.

I’ve always been a fan of board games. I used to spend endless hours playing Monopoly with my older sister (just don’t ask her what I did if I lost – yes, I’m a sore loser!). So, I can’t wait until both my kids are old enough to play them with me. I’ve always been a fan of asking questions, too – hence my choice in careers: I’m a journalist – so as soon as I found out about Table Topics, I wanted to get my hands on it.

You see, Table Topics is a game of 135 cards – which come in a cool acrylic cube – with all kinds of questions to get a conversation started. There are several different themes including: Teen, Couples, Girls Night Out and Right or Wrong. And the best part is that they have two bilingual editions, Family and Original. Since the questions come in both English and Spanish they are great no matter which is your native tongue. The Family edition has questions suitable for any age. The Original is geared toward children over the age of 12.

Here are some sample questions from the Family version so you can get an idea as what to expect:

• Which three objects would you save first if your house caught fire?
• What’s the funniest story you’ve heard for why someone couldn’t turn in their homework?
• Why would you rather be a girl or a boy?
• If you could speak another language which would you choose?

Imagine all the new vocabulary your kids can be exposed to just by answering some of these questions. And, remember the best thing to do is to keep the conversation going by continuing to ask questions from whatever answers they give. Definitely a great time to learn while having fun and spending some quality time together!

I think these are perfect especially this time of year when so many of us gather with family and friends to celebrate the holidays.

A Giveaway!!

This giveaway is now closed. CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS #6 JULIE and #16 AMY!!!

You have a chance to win one Family and one Original cube from Table Topics. All you have to do is go to to Table Topics and tell us which theme of all their cubes is your favorite and why.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then click here to learn how to get additional entries.

This giveaway ends Sunday, November 22nd at midnight EST.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

{Make sure you’re subscribed to the SBFinds feed via email or RSS so that you can be notified of our weekly Finds, special discounts and more awesome giveaways.}

Photo by Juria Yoshikawa

More than one study has proven that the best way for children to develop their language and reading skills is through dialogue. This is particularly important for bilingual children. It is a fallacy to think that just sitting your child in front of the television set to watch a program in Spanish or to let them mouse around with a bilingual computer game will expose them to the kind of vocabulary needed to become proficient in the minority language.

So motivate your child to interact verbally with you and you’ll be teaching him the basics of language: phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. These will eventually help him develop more complex skills such as reading and writing.

5 Ways to Enrich Your Child’s Vocabulary:

1) Don’t change the way you normally speak – You don’t have to simplify your vocabulary when you talk to your children. They will get what you’re trying to say even when they don’t understand every single word. I’m pretty sure part of the reason why my daughter’s vocabulary is so extensive for her age is because I always speak to her the way I would if I were talking to, say, my husband.

2) Expand on the conversation - You can do this by responding to your child using longer sentences based on his simple phrases. When my 3-year-old daughter, Vanessa, says something like: “Yo amo mucho a mi perrito”. I say something like: “Yo también lo amo mucho porque es bueno y juguetón. Y, ¿tú por qué lo amas”? I also do this a lot when I read her a book and she points to something in particular. I expand on what she says by asking her to describe the object in more detail or relating it to something we did or saw recently. That always gets her going.

3) Understand that her mistakes are part of her progress – Grammar and pronunciation errors will happen as your child establishes her own knowledge of the language. Maybe she understands the rule about conjugating certain verbs, for example, but she’s not aware of the exceptions – and if you know anything about Spanish, then you know those abound. Just give her the correct model in your response, but don’t make a big deal out of it. My daughter does this constantly with the verb poner. So she’ll say, “Por qué papito ponió su mochila ahí”? And I’ll respond, “Papito puso su mochila ahí para no olvidársela“. I’m pretty sure that, as with other things, she’ll eventually get it.

4) Turn everything into a topic of conversation – Try to provide your children with all kinds of experiences in as many different places as possible and as often as possible. I love taking walks around our neighborhood with Vanessa because just about anything going on out there becomes a topic of conversation and helps expand her vocabulary: children playing basketball, Halloween decorations, the mailman delivering a package, etc.  In fact, it was thanks to one of our walks that she learned the phrase “darle la vuelta a la manzana” which translates as a walk around the block. Now, whenever she wants to take a walk, she says: “Vamos a dar la vuelta a la manzana, mami“.

5) Learn to listen. Being a good listener is such an essential trait, yet not everybody possesses it. My father used to say: “Calla y escucha”. Roughly translated into: “Shut up and listen.” The truth is you learn far more from listening than from talking – especially when it comes to helping your child enrich his vocabulary. It’s absolutely normal for little ones to go off on a tangent when verbalizing an idea or sharing a story with you. Just listen without interrupting and then you’ll be better equipped to ask the kind of questions that will lead to even more conversations.

What are some strategies you use to enrich your child’s vocabulary?

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