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"The Ideal Gift is one which brings joy to both the giver and receiver. Its contribution is both timeless and priceless."   This site is for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters and friends who desire to give a lasting gift to a little person in their lives...   Let's strengthen our contribution to our children's education by giving them something which cannot be provided otherwise and that cannot ever be taken away: the gift of language.

FACT: Contrary to what was previously believed (and still believed by some), studies indicate that children really do profit from early attempts to foster bilingualism - or even multilingualism. In fact, teaching a child another language early on can give them the advantage later on:

"In 1962, Peal and Lambert published the results of a study comparing bilingual
and monolingual children on various measures of intelligence and achievement.
Their findings were surprising, at least in light of certain assumptions that had
been prevalent in child psychology up to that time. They found no evidence to
indicate any sort of intellectual deficiency in bilingual children. The
performance of bilinguals on all measures was either equivalent or superior to
that of their monolingual comparison group." Read more...

"It has been shown that exposing young children to more than one language actually helps their language skills in the long run. By the time your child reaches his later elementary school years, you may see above-average vocabulary, sentence structure, and comprehension skills. He also may have an easier time picking up new languages."  BabyCenter.com

FACT: Did you know it is believed that around half the world's children are either bilingual or multilingual?!

START SPEAKING THAT "OTHER" LANGUAGE WITH THE CHILD CONCERNED AS MUCH AND AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE! The sooner the better. If your child is already used to you speaking one language and you are worried they may not understand if you suddenly start speaking another, start by saying the sentence/word in one language and then repeating it in the other.

Try to get other family members and friends to speak to the child in this 'minority' language too, if they speak it - or yet another language if they have one. A child has no problem sorting out all these languages and will do so spontaneously, even if there may seem to be a little confusion in the beginning. Also, it does not matter if the language you are teaching them is a second language for you.

FACT: Children are born with an innate capacity for language and can distinguish their mother tongue from another language after only a few days.

  Send the child to a bilingual/multilingual school if possible and try to find them a minder who speaks the other language. NB. A child will always learn the 'environmental' language as soon as they are exposed to it (school, friends, media etc), so don't worry they will be behind if you speak another language at home before they go to pre-school. It is also an idea to find them other bilingual children to play with outside of school.

Spend quality time using the other language: for example, try reading books, singing songs and reading nursery rhymes together in the other language.

FACT: Young children possess certain linguistic capacities - such as for pronunciation - which weaken with age.

Here is a little something for you to get started with...

A bilingual ABC poster in English and French - click here!

For all other information on bilingualism in children please refer to our Info Guide and Practical Guide pages. These pages include facts and myths as well as practical tips. We really hope you find what you came for ...and more!

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