An expectant parent who speaks both Spanish and English is interested in teaching his new child both his native Spanish and his newly acquired English. What might you advise this parent regarding the way in which he may proceed to teach his child both languages effectively?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Children are born optimally prepared to speak any language. After birth, they are able to detect phenomes, the basic units of language, more efficiently than adults. This ability fades as development progresses, and the child will then be better able to detect the phenomes of the language he or she is exposed to than phenomes of other languages. This process demonstrates the plasticity of the infant brain.

In order to optimize the child's ability to learn both Spanish and English, this parent should introduce both languages early on, so as to enhance the child's ability to identify and reproduce the phenomes of both languages. Although this child may experience some confusion as he or she begins to use language, this confusion will decrease with age.