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There’s this long held belief that’s been around for many, many years about languages, learning & being multilingual. Understanding the truth has the potential to revolutionize how you approach language teaching and how your students experience success.
The myth is this: Humans learn languages. It seems so basic, right? Such a simple concept but language is not a skill that can be learned....... wait, what?! Speech delay? Late talker? Not sure? Many of us aren’t. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 5% of kids ages 3-17 in the United States have struggled with a speech disorder in the past 12 months. That’s 1 out of every 20 kids! It’s no wonder that I get asked about speech disorders and language acquisition as often as I do! Lately though, it’s come up a lot more often so let’s talk about it! I want to set straight some common misconceptions…
We love playing outside just as much as any family but it has been raining and stormy here most of this month. The worst part is that most of the time there’s been lightning so we couldn’t even play in the rain and the few days it has been sunny, the mosquitos have been unbearable. My daughter was outside for 30 minutes and came in with 7 bites just on her forehead!
I hate being stuck inside but since we have to, let’s try to make the most of it. I’ve got six fun activities that can get your kids using their language skills inside on a rainy day. As always, adjust them, change them and make them your own. Do what works for you because every kid is unique. Let’s go…. It’s been exactly 441 days since our family’s life was flipped upside down by COVID-19. Hopefully it will be over soon but for now, here we are. It might be a little more or a little less for you at this point but my guess is that it’s been about that long for you too.
It’s funny how when we go through big, sudden changes like that, so many other things change too, sometimes without us even noticing at first. For us, it wasn’t just a change to online classes and no social interaction. There was also a huge shift in the way we interacted with each other as a family. Ironically enough, we’ve had MORE opportunities for French & Chinese (2 of the languages that I don’t speak) and LESS time for Spanish, a language that I’m fluent in. Remember when you first decided to venture out on this journey to create multilingual kids? Regardless of whether it was 8 years ago or yesterday, my guess is that you had a reason and a goal for where they would end up.
So what was your reason? Did you want them to communicate with family, travel with ease or have better career opportunities? Maybe you wanted them to be able to learn languages easier later in life or you simply wanted them to experience the cognitive benefits of a bilingual brain. Whatever your reason, they would need fluency in the language, right? ….but what does fluency even mean? It might not be what you expect. Are you ready for some Tips & Tricks that every language learner should know about??? YouTube is an absolute gold mine for language learners!!! But not just because you can find engaging videos in so many different languages. YouTube also has a few key features that make it especially amazing....
Let's get started! I remember when my son was young, he was a ‘late talker’. He was late but he was still within the normal range of when doctors say they should start talking. As he started putting words together and speaking in complete sentences, nearly every single thing he said was a mix of English and Spanish. I thought it was SO cute but to the outside world, we were making a HUGE mistake! It didn’t help, of course, that we live in a VERY monolingual English speaking part of the world.
For as long as I can remember, I've been a 'perfectionist'. It would drive me nuts to see a word spelled wrong, someone wearing mismatched socks or the toilet paper roll hung in the wrong direction (that one drives you nuts too, doesn't it?) I never really understood why exactly it drove me nuts but it did. Like finger nails on a chalkboard.
My expectations for myself were so much higher than my expectations for anyone else and to be completely honest, they were downright unrealistic. My fear of making a mistake or not doing it 'the right way' was numbing. I would avoid restaurants because I'd never been there before and I didn't know what to expect. If I wasn't sure how something would turn out, I'd end up either procrastinating to the extreme or I'd avoid the situation all together. I still struggle with this sometimes (as you can tell by the fact that I'm writing this post 2 hours before it'll go live). And now....on to community building!
I’m here today to talk about community building!...community building for families with children who speak more than one language!
Have you ever wondered if it was too late for your child to learn a new language easily? I know I have! I see so many parents on social media asking too. You're definitely not alone!
Are you ready for the good news? There's some exciting new research that answers this question and the answer is probably not what you're expecting. Before I get to that though, let me tell you my story... |
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