Recommended Read: Bringing Up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman

In the weeks since its release, Bringing Up Bébé has been a topic of debate on both sides of the Atlantic. While some have been quick to label it as a parenting manual, or an affront against American parents everywhere, Bringing Up Bébé is really one mother’s account of navigating the new and mysterious world of parenthood, and having to do it in another country, proposing a culture shock all its own.  Bringing Up Bébé is an amusing, touching, and adventurous account of life as a new parent and the choices one must make in the best interest of one’s own child, family, and life.  Bringing Up Bébé highlights the  inner struggles we all face as parents, on both sides of the Atlantic. Through the author’s light and humor-filled look at her own trials and tribulations, we just might find a bit of ourselves – who we are today and who we’d like to be.

Rating: *****  (5 Stars)

Have you read Bringing Up Bébé? Share your comments!

Bilingual Babies: Expose now, benefit later

At birth, we are born with the ability to discriminate and repeat the sounds of any world language. As we begin to live and function within the language of our society, we slowly lose the need to produce these other sounds and the brain eventually reduces this ability. This is why we see many toys (such as Around the World See and Say), cartoons (Dora, Diego, & Ni Hao Kai Lan), and video series (such as Baby Einstein and the On Demand children’s programming) designed to introduce the sounds of other languages to children as early as possible with a goal of keeping this ability alive within the brain.

While American parents tend to be hesitant to introduce a second language before the child can actually speak English, research shows that benefits of doing so abound, including: increased academic abilities over multiple subject areas, easier recovery from brain injury, and delays in the onset of age-related dementia.  The brain is an amazing thing. Exposure now, will certainly provide benefits later.

Interested in getting your child started in becoming bilingual? While TV shows, videos, and online programs are a great place to start, and can provide a base of knowledge serving as a springboard for acquisition, research shows that human interaction is important.

Worried? Hesitant? Read this article in Science Daily

Is your child learning a language? Let us know how it’s going! Share your story by posting a comment!

Coming Soon: Easy ways to introduce foreign languages to children

“I wike it awot!” When Speech Errors Worry Parents

As children learn to speak, parents often worry when children have trouble making certain sounds. For the more difficult sounds, children will often substitute one consonant for another, such as: “ffff” for “th”, or “da” for “the”, or “wa” for “la”. You may hear your child say, “movie feater” or “I wike dat” instead of “movie theater” and “I like that”.   When children keep mispronouncing sounds as they head toward kindergarten, inevitably parents become more and more worried. Believe it or not, many of these issues can be corrected at home before involving a speech therapist.

As a linguist and a researcher, I am well-versed in many aspects language acquisition and development. So, one would think that when I realized that my son was having speech development issues, I would have approached the issue in a very sensible, academic manner. Absolutely not! Like any parent, I worried, became more stressed out over it the longer it went on, and even  started obsessing about the many ways my son would be made fun of at school. I was surprised at just how much that worrying mommy side of me was overtaking the linguist. Once I realized how ridiculous my worry was, I began to work to correct my son’s speech issues in a very systematic way.

Sound production is all about exercising the oral muscles to get everything moving in the right direction. Sound production generally involves placement of the lips, tongue, and air flow. Children initially learn to speak by imitating what they hear. Through trial and error, they eventually begin to produce correct sounds. However, when a child mispronounces a sound – usually a consonant, it’s almost always because the tongue or lips are doing the wrong thing. The key is to retrain the oral muscles to the right thing.

Did I sit my son down in a classroom-like setting to work on his issues? No. Did I even point out to my son that he had issues, or was doing anything wrong? Absolutely not! I’m quite certain that he didn’t even realize that my home-based speech therapy was anything more than a game. It’s seems almost too simple because no special skills are required. As parents, all we have to do is listen and take a moment to focus two minutes of attention on the mispronounced sound, right at the time when the child produces it. It doesn’t matter whether you are shopping, playing, or hanging out at home. You can do it in the car, wherever and whenever you hear your child produce the particular sound needing correction.

Here are some helpful tips for helping your child produce the correct sounds:

• Observe and take note of the sounds with which your child is having trouble.
• Decide which sound you will work on first. Focus on one sound at a time. Once the child is correctly producing a sound on his or her own, then move on to the next one.
• When the child produces the targeted sound incorrectly, very casually have him/her repeat the word after you. Then, show the child where your tongue is placed, how the lips are shaped, etc.
• Model the sound for your child. Have the child repeat it.
• Now, use the sound in the same word your child used. Have them repeat it.
• Do this every time your child produces that sound
• Be happy, use rising intonation, give praise to the child for trying.

For example, consider this 30-60 second conversation:

Child: I wike candy.

Parent: You like candy?

Child: Uh huh, I wike candy awot!

Parent: Can you do this? La-La-La (opening mouth and exaggerating the placement of the tongue each time)

Child: Wa-Wa-Wa

Parent: Nice try! See my tongue? Can you stick your out like mine and touch your teeth? Say La-La-La

Child: La-La (it takes child considerable effort at first)

Parent: Great job! Isn’t this fun? La-La-La

Child: La-La-La

Parent : La-La-Like

Child : La-La-Like

Parent : Yay !! Can you say “I like it” ?

Child: I wike it

Parent: La-La-Like, I La-La-Like it

Child : I La-La-Like it !

Parent: I like it

Child: I like it!

Parent: A La-La-Lot

Child: La-La-Lot

Parent : A-lot

Child : A –lot

• Draw fun attention to the sound every time your child uses it, until the child self corrects and eventually produces it correctly. You will be amazed at the process and the improvements you witness.
• When the child produces the sound correctly, give praise every time he or she does it, even if you’ve already moved on to focusing on another sound.

Over the course of about 6 months, my son’s speech completely turned itself around and all of the speech issues I mentioned earlier have disappeared. Our last conquest is the “R” which tends to be the most difficult. We are working on it and making it fun. We’ll see what happens!

If your child doesn’t show improvement, or becomes resistant to your efforts, it’s a good idea to consult a speech professional, such as a speech-language pathologist. Most schools offer speech services free of charge, so check with your school or school district.

Here are some helpful links:

•  American Speech-Language Hearing Association

• Kids Health

What are your experiences with child speech? Please feel free to share!

Lost in Translation: Differences in dialect can be a funny thing!

In an effort to expose my children to the French language, as spoken by native speakers (as well as snow) we have traveled to the province of Québec, Canada for the last two years. During our first visit, in 2010, we got off of the plane and drove straight from Montréal to Mont Tremblant, about 1.5 hours to the north, in the beautiful Laurentian Mountains. Being in a resort area, the French that we encountered was much more standard, closer to Parisian than Québécois. Other than the slight difference in accent, we had no communication issues whatsoever. This year, however, we learned that stopping along our route between the two more international destinations would expose us to many more colloquial expressions and provide some comedic moments.

We never thought that a stop at Burger King drive thru would provide a teachable moment in Québécois French vocabulary, but it did. To be sure, having to communicate via the standard drive thru communication system, didn’t help. We thought we had ordered a hamburger with ketchup, lettuce, and pickle with a Sprite “comme boisson (pronounced bwah-sohn).” In Parisian French, the word boisson means drink or beverage . As we pulled away, my husband began to take our food out of its packaging, while I drove. He looked at me and asked if I had ordered a fish sandwich. Of course, I hadn’t, yet we were both looking at a fish sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and pickle (icky!). As we nibbled on our food, I kept replaying in my head, and discussing with my similarly confused husband, how we could’ve ended up with a fish sandwich. Then it hit me! The French word for “fish” is poisson. At first, it seemed like a simple thing to me. Through the speaker system boisson was interpreted as poisson, but it gets better. We later learned that boisson does not even exist in Québécois French, having been replaced through the centuries by the less common, and more anglicized, word: breuvage (meaning: beverage or brew).

Lessons learned? Research common dialect differences before traveling!!

What is a dialect? Simply put, a dialect is characterized by differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation within a language when utilized in different regions of the same country, or in different countries.

Are you planning a trip soon? Whether abroad, or within the United States, it a good idea to familiarize yourself with the dialect spoken in the area where you will travel. Believe it or not, the English language has almost too many dialects to count!

Explore the following links to learn more:

English Dialects

Spanish Dialects

French Dialects

Looking for more language dialects?

Explore this link, by Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect

Have you had a “Lost in Translation” experience? Share it by commenting below!