Spanish For Kids

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Spanish For Kids
A Way To Boost Their Brains While Preserving Hispanic Culture

Spanish for kids ads are popping everywhere these days. I guess after realizing how important Spanish is going to become in the U.S. many parents, organizations, and business owners realized this country is changing big time!

For many Hispanics like me, an immigrant from Colombia South-America, maintaining my native language and passing it down to my children was a no brainer because language is the single most important unifying element of Hispanic culture.

In one way or another learning to speak Spanish is becoming not simply a luxury but a necessity. Teaching Spanish for kids at a young age can:

Boost their domain of mental/cognitive flexibility.

Increase the density of their gray matter.

Prepare them better to live in a global economy.

Help you keep alive your Hispanic culture.

My reasons for advocating the introduction of Spanish for kids have evolved into more sophisticated ones:

On one hand, America�s Hispanic population is exploding which will only bring more Hispanic culture and bilingual Spanish people into the countries� population.

On the other hand I found out about the developmental advantages of raising bilingual children.

We all know about the Hispanic population growth and its projections for the near future, if in doubt check my Hispanic and Latino Culture Facts article. Simple logic tells us there will be many more bilingual Spanish people in the near future, as Hispanics and immigrants specially, are most likely to teach their children Spanish at home.

When I was pregnant with my son I started researching about the advantages, resources and tasks necessary to raise a bilingual child. I was pleasantly surprised to find plenty of studies explaining the differences in the brain of monolingual and bilingual children which made me realize the benefits of supporting bilingual upbringing.

Gone are the days when researchers like the psychologist Madorah E. Smith in 1939 concluded that �bilingualism caused retardation and that second-language learning in childhood is arduous, handicapping, and fraught with problems.�

Smith�s conclusions were based in part on the fact that children who are being raised bilingual chose to mix vocabulary from two languages. I see this pattern frequently at home with my son, it is normal and healthy.

Now we know that �lexical mixing is a good indicator of language differentiation and shows the representation of two languages in the bilingual mind� as Ellen Bialystok explains in her 2001 book Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy,and Cognition.

What Are The Advantages I Found That Make Me Advocate Spanish For Kids In The U.S.?

It all stems from the differences many researchers found in brain development when they compared bilingual vs. monolingual children, and I recommend learning to speak Spanish in addition to English because of the growing need for bilingual Spanish people in the U.S.

I read through many research projects that offered very positive conclusions about bilingualism. I also considered my need to continue living and enjoying Hispanic culture in our home, and introducing Spanish for kids at an early age was a very good avenue to be true to my heritage.

Brief Set Of Interesting Findings And My Thoughts About Raising Bilingual Children

Ellen Bialystok in her 2001 book mentioned above says that bilinguals have �consistent advantages� to understand the nature of language rather than the ability to use language to communicate meaning.

A study conducted by Peal and Lambert in 1962 showed bilinguals to be superior to monolinguals in the domain of mental/cognitive flexibility.

Children who are bilingual develop the concept of �object permanence� more rapidly than monolingual children. That is what Therese Sullivan Caccavale, president of the National Network for Early Language Learning says.

If you think it is too difficult to raise a bilingual child think about this comment Dr. Geoffrey S. Koby, associate professor of German Translation at Kent State University said in the article Raising a Bilingual Child, Parents Can Teach Their Children a Foreign Language at a Young Age By Diane Laney Fitzpatrick in 2007: �All human beings are naturally, innately able to learn a foreign language as a child.�

Introducing Spanish for Kids at a young age must be beneficial I thought after reading the October 2004 issue of Nature, where researchers found that bilingual speakers had denser gray matter, in particular in areas of memory, language, and attention. WOW who doesn�t want to give this present to their children!

The obvious one, introducing Spanish for kids at a young age and keeping with it give them stronger communication skills in a global economy that is constantly evolving. It is like having an extra tool in your tool box.

The U.S. is one of the few countries where the norm is to be monolingual. In the majority of countries natives learn at least two languages. Even the indigenous people in North, Central and South-America!

Learning to speak Spanish in a country that has an increased need for Spanish speaking people may be a great gift for your children.

Introducing Spanish to my son at an early age has been an enriching process that allows me to get in touch with my heritage and preserve my Hispanic culture.

I think raising bilingual Spanish kids opens your mind in the process because you start learning not only a language but also the culture attached to it. Thankfully, there has been an improvement in materials to help you introduce Spanish for kids and reinforce it at any age; the only requirement is that we, as parents, just have to be well informed.

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