The Language Experiment
How do I raise a multilingual child? Will exposing my child to multiple languages confuse them? Will their speech be delayed? How can I give them enough exposure to my mother tongue? These were just some of the questions that Kaisa and Camillo had when they were expecting their first child. Originally from Finland and Brazil, now living in the French speaking part of Canada, the couple searched for answers, literature and resources about multilingual upbringing.
When their research turned out unfruitful, they agreed to do what felt most natural to them: practicing their own languages with their daughter while incorporating two local languages on top of that. The Language Experiment is a podcast where Kaisa and Camillo share their journey on multilingual parenting with hopes of helping and encouraging other parents who are looking to raise multilingual children. There will be interviews, practical tips and plenty of real life experiences and perspectives on multilingualism.
You’ll discover how they helped their daughter become quadrilingual before the age of three only by reading, singing, playing and spending time outdoors with her. You’ll learn to recognize and critically assess some of the myths surrounding multilingual parenting. You’ll also hear from other parents and learn what worked for them and what didn’t. If you are a parent raising or wanting to raise children with multiple languages, this podcast is a must-listen. Hit subscribe now and join the community!
The Language Experiment
4 easy (and cheap) ways to teach languages to your child
006 - Discover four simple and cost-effective methods to teach languages to your children in this episode of the Language Experiment podcast. Join us as we explore the benefits of imaginative play, music and singing, playing outdoors, and reading books aloud. These accessible and enjoyable techniques can enhance your child's language learning journey.
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welcome back to the Language Experiment.
Kaisa:Hi everybody. Glad to have you with us. So Camillo, what are we going to be talking about today?
Camillo:We are just going to talk about four easy and cheap ways to teach our child languages.
Kaisa:That's awesome.
Camillo:Yeah. Because as parents, we know that we want the best for our children. On the other hand, we like things that are cheap and easy to do. With this in mind, we want to introduce you to the benefits of imaginative play, music and singing, playing outdoors and reading books to your children. There are certainly other ways to enhance your children's language learning, but this is our top four because all these methods are free and or low cost and accessible to everyone. So why don't you start first Kaisa, let's start with imaginative play.
Kaisa:Sure. So imaginative play allows children to make sense of their world and develop problem solving skills. It also helps with social and emotional development, creativity and language skills. Depending on your child's age, they can choose a theme or a toy that they're interested in and you can start building around it together. For young children, this might involve you and your child passing a toy telephone between you taking turns, saying hello into it, or eating pretend food from toy plates and saying Yummy after each spoonful. For young children who are learning, repetition is very important and the key to building and strengthening neuro pathways in their brains. With an older child, you might choose something a bit more complicated, such as playing doctor or taking care of a stuffed animal. Let the child take the lead and dictate the direction of the play. But if they run out of ideas or get stuck or distracted, be ready to make suggestions on what to do next. Your role is adding actions and words to the play that the child might not know yet, and asking questions such as, please, doctor, could you check if I have a fever, or should we give some water to the doggie? That can develop the play to a different level and expand the child's understanding and vocabulary. Don't worry about coming up with elaborate and fantastical ideas for imaginative play because kids love to pretend doing regular things from your actual life. For example, my daughter loves preparing pretend lattes and cappuccinos into little cups in the bath with foam and everything because those are things that she sees us preparing every morning
Camillo:yeah. I get offered a lot of flat whites when I'm watching her taking a bath.
Kaisa:Those are good. She's a good barista.
Camillo:Yeah. It's a dangerous level of caffeine to everyone.
Kaisa:That's so true.
Camillo:A second way to teach your children languages is through music and singing. Music is a powerful tool for learning and development. It helps children with language, emotional and cognitive development. It can also improve memory, attention span, and problem solving skills. Some research has also shown that there is a close correlation between music aptitude and the ability to learn foreign languages. And the reason for this is that in our brains, both these skills activate overlapping areas, and those areas also happen to be involved in cognition and memory. Just like many people are afraid to try yoga because they think they're not flexible enough. A lot of people are afraid to sing to their children because they don't think they're good singers. But don't worry if you have no musical talent. A baby whose parents sing to them will benefit immensely compared to a baby whose parents never sing to them. And besides hearing their favorite person singing to them is the most wonderful thing that a baby can imagine. We need to remember, the goal is not to teach your child to be a professional singer, but rather to connect with them through music and to help them learn words and their meaning in a really fun way. Remember when Kaiser said that repetition is crucial for children when they're learning something? Songs. Songs provide a more natural way of repeating words than spoken language. which makes it more interesting to the child and actually supports the learning process by, you know, creating more neuro pathways. For example, when our younger daughter hears the song a Ram Samsung, she immediately starts making the movements that they do in her daycare group when they are singing that song. So if you don't always feel like singing, You can also listen to the music with your child. Start looking for bands that make children's music in your native language, and you might discover some great artists that you have never heard of before. At least that's what happened to us.
Kaisa:Mm-hmm. Yeah. We found a lot of really great artists when we started our journey. So next. Number three, we have playing outdoors. Playing outdoors is essential for children's, physical and mental health. It allows children to develop their motor skills, learn about the environment, and engage in physical activity. It also happens to be great for developing language skills. My home country of Finland and the other Nordic countries all have a strong outdoor culture, which means that kids spend a lot of time outside since birth. You may be familiar with Nordic parents leaving their babies to nap in the stroller in a freezing cold. And forest schools, which have been gaining popularity all over the world since the nineties actually originated in Denmark. Because of how I grew up in Finland, I have always spent a lot of time outside with my children. And as a result, both of my kids will much rather play outdoors than indoors. But how exactly does playing outdoors help with language development as adults can sometimes take the natural environment for granted. But for children who are still discovering the world and everything that's in it, the natural environment is simply mind blowing by observing their surroundings. Children are constantly integrating new ideas about the world around them, into their knowledge base, and this encourages them to use language in new ways. While a younger child might just point at things wanting you to tell them what they are and feel the texture of different materials, an older child might exercise their language by asking questions. Why do ants swarm? Why do leaves change color in the fall? Why do trees have roots? No matter how many toys you have at home, the indoors environment is always limited, whereas the outdoors provide limitless opportunities for thinking, developing language skills, and communicating with your child.
Camillo:And that takes us to number four, reading out aloud. Reading books to your kids in your native language or in any language, offers a variety of invaluable benefits for their language journey. It allows your kids to become more familiar with the melodic nuances and the linguistic patterns specific to your language when they're hearing you speaking fluently in your mother tongue. It helps them develop a natural ear for that language. And since we talk differently from what books sound like reading books, expose your child to vocabulary and grammar they wouldn't normally hear, which is great. Reading to your child also stimulates their imagination and expands their understanding of the world. In our case, for example, here at home, we are reading two books before bed. One we read in Portuguese, which I take it under my responsibility of course. And another one is in Finnish when Kaisa sits with them and read to them. We're talking about both of them, although one just turned one a couple months ago. It's really important. They should become familiar with your language, with the nuances, with your accent since early age. Never underestimate how important that is for your children, and this is essential. For us here, it's part of our routine. It is deep down in the roots of our routine, and even if us parents don't always feel like it, our daughters make sure that we do it every single night.
Kaisa:That is so true. Sometimes when you're tired and you don't feel like it, it's still way easier to read that book than to deal with the crisis of not reading that book. So it's important to them. And that's good. So that's it everyone. These were our top four ways of teaching languages to our kids, and I'd say those are our favorite, like most popular. Most popular ways of doing that. And we try to use them every day if possible. maybe you learn something new or maybe you're already using them all, but you just never looked at them from the language teaching angle. And when you talk about teaching, often we think about. a teacher teaching in some, classroom setting, but I think we should all think about teaching also in a different way. it can happen in a much more natural and dynamic way, especially with kids. maybe you have some of your favorite ways of teaching languages to your child, and if you do, please let us know. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks so much for being here with us. See you in the next episode.
Camillo:Bye
Kaisa:bye-Bye
