carries

ASL? Sign language?? THis is supposed to be realllllly good for babys as they can communicate through signing so much earlier than speech. I will be taking baby to a baby signing class as I have seen a friends baby use it and its fantastic!

polo_princess

Go for it!! The more they can learn at that age the better!!

Blob

I'd love to be able to do this for my LO trying to get my cousin to make tapes and speak ha ha ha!! I think its great doing this for your LO its such a great thing to do

CK Too

The earlier they can pick up languages the better. I´ll be speaking english to mine and my DH will speak german. Its amazing how quickly they can pick up different languages and retain the information.

I quite often speak german to my Godson back in England, I don´t see him very often unfortunately, but its amazing what he can remember when I go back and see him.

thelilbump

Hi Rae.

Ok so i've studied child language acquisition. I can tell u what i know but do you want to know from that kinda technical view point? Theres no real yes or no answer, its up to you to make up your mind because theres arguements for and against. I don't mind at all givin u a breif overview if you want but thought i'd jus ask first before i go writin a short story haha

rae05

Go ahead! I did linguistics in school and I know they can learn quickly when they're young, but I'm just wondering if 3 at once is forcing it.

thelilbump

Right ok, well this is from a uni module i took. Prepare for a total info overload!!! Bare in mind its taught from a british view aswell. I will try to explain them well but breifly u might wanna google stuff if u want a better picture?

Well, like i say theres no yes or no, it more so depends on what you beleive on how language is acquired. Theres the Chomsky theory of the language acqusition device, this is a kind of natural view, that beleives that language is a biological makeup of our brains. Then theres the empiricist view which says language is learnt from experince (which is what could be more so argued for what happens in bilingual homes). Its probably advisable that between french and english you choose one language as your main language and then introduce the second language at a later stage (how late i couldn't tell you if i'm honest). The empiricist view states that first languages are beleived to be picked up through a trail and error hypothesis formation which is why children begin to say things like 'i dided that' (correct version being i did that) the -ed comes from the rule they learnt for the past tense -ed. So when you introduce a second language at a very early stage it can cause confusion because of the different rules that need to be learnt from each. Empiricists and nativists also argue whether a second language can be learnt competently. One leaning for and one against. IMO though i do think it probably depends on the competance of the child and the people speaking around it. My friend for example is fluent in two languages as her parents 1st languageas are different and although i don't know her second language seh seems to speak it with confidence and is understood. Like i say probs best look them up and make your own decision, just try not to get lost theres allsorts of theories that are linked! As for ASL, we're talkin about american sign language yes?, thats fab to get your baby to learn it but again you need to becareful they don't get confused. Some hearing children can sign before speech and vice versa, deaf children can babble. On a basic level, for a hearing child Its to do with the phonemes (sounds) that are picked up when the baby hears your voice, thats how people such as chomsky again beleive they learn through whats known as the critical period hypothesis.

Right i think thats info overload. I've tried really hard to keep it simple (and hopefully not made it worse) but its so complex! I'm totally on the fence personally, i really don't know whats best. I don't know if you can get them over there but here they make infants leapfrog toys aswell that speak different languages

http://www.leapfroguk.com/do/findpro...ey=ages_infant

http://www.leapfroguk.com/do/findpro...ey=ages_infant

etc. Just ask if u don't understand anything

thelilbump

not actually as long as it looked

Scrumptious

Our baby will be spoken to in English, Arabic and French when it eventually arrives.

I did a language degree with some linguistics so I'm happy that the baby will easily learn and differentiate between the 3.

I only recently heard about baby signing though. Sounds fab but would it not make the baby more reluctant to communicate verbally?

rae05

If you speak to them the same time you do the signs, it doesn't prevent them from speaking