Como Se Dice, Burp Me?

Chris Lucas, an associate professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at New York University's Child Study Center, agrees that early can be better than later when it comes to instruction, but that parents need to proceed with a bit of caution. Unless a child is raised in a bilingual household, says Lucas, parents should wait to see whether their child develops normally in a primary language before enrolling them in foreign language classes to ensure he or she doesn't have a developmental language learning disorder.

Both Homer and Lucas agree, however, that more important than the number of languages taught or whether a child starts classes at 6 or 16 months is the richness of their language exposure. A single class once a week will not a bilingual child make. In fact, a low level of foreign language exposure can even be slightly detrimental, because there can be come confusion between languages as the child trues to comprehend both. "A little bit of knowledge can sometimes not be beneficial," says Homer. In other words, signing your 2-year-old up for three language classes may not be harmful, but providing one scant instruction in each might be.

So how best to provide an immersive education for young children? Most instructors agree that the key is to incorporate elements of play, listening, and interaction in the classroom and at home. Most institutions provide materials such as books or DVDs for parents to take home so children can have more exposure to the language, and many instructors urge parents to seek out extracurricular activities that incorporate language learning, such as a trip to Chinatown for a toddler enrolled in Mandarin class, or a visit to a bistro for a child a child taking French. Not only will this reinforce language education but it will help develop a child's lasting interest.

Still, parents should do some legwork to find a program that is more than just fun and games. There must be an effective method behind the instruction, says Thibaut of Language Workshop for Children, adding for example that his classes take into account different styles of learning, such as movement and listening.

Parents also need to be flexible when it comes to their expectations. "Parents shouldn't judge their child's progress by adult standards' says Rachel Myer, co-founder of ABC Language Exchange. Like so many other things learning a new language takes time.

Zhaodan Huang, manager of the Children's Program at the China Institute, urges parents to be patient with their kids. In other words, a father shouldn't expect his three-year-old to strike up a conversation in Mandarin with the neighbors. Yet, noting that enrollment tends to drop off for the higher level classes, Huang also says that it's equally important to encourage your kids to stick with it. Especially because learning a foreign language is about more than just speaking Spanish or Chinese. It's about becoming a more global-minded thinker.

"It gets kids to become open-minded and to learn about other cultures and different traditions," says Patrizia Saglio, co-director of the Italian language center, Lo Spazio in Collina. And what's not to like about that?