Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Talking to nannies

I might also seize this opportunity to expose your son to a second language. What if she read books to him on the subjects he enjoys, but in HER first language? A friend of mine ALWAYS hired non native English speakers as sitters and nannies for just that reason...

I'll confirm that a young child's early babble it very, very hard to understand for non-native speakers. I stopped even trying, but then I am not a nanny and I go by the theory that if my kids really want to communicate they will make the effort to switch to the right language (although if enunciated clearly enough I *will* provide the translation for whatever word they are currently mangling).

If this was a long term hire I would ask the nanny to switch to her whatever her native language is. Your child would pick up a foreign language in the best possible way (early, full immersion) and since things would have to be kept simple, at least in the beginning, there would be a better chance for the nanny to rise beyond her own expectations of what he can do as he learns more and more. You would have to invest in some baby books in that language, which depending on what it is could be easy... or not.

Since you are not looking to the long term a talk, and modeling what you do, is probably your best bet. If the nanny can't adapt, that's a different issue, and you will have to find a new one.

Yeah, part of the problem is that it's not early babble. His average sentance length is well over 10 words, and his vocabularly is at about a 5 yr level, and includes technical-ish terms in several subject areas ("zygote," "piston block," "south"). His articulation is average to behind, for his chronological age of 2.5.

He often takes time composing his speach, and typically switches to a less familiar (more precice) rather than more familliar word when he realizes he needs to use a different word to explain himself. So you have to wait for him to finish about the same way you do with an adult who is talking about something important to them. And if you expect "choo choo," his switch to "That is a smoke and steamstack" is gonna throw you. Pronounced, of course "zat isa snoke anda stEEEEEEEEEEmmmmm Snack."

Thanks for all the comments. We've considered suggesting that she use Tagalog, but he's got more than one language going already, maybe I'll try it anyway. He's gonna have 5 languages at this rate. Guess that's not exactly BAD I've always kinda thought of 5 as being the number of languages at which I consider a person to be truly Multilingual, rather than just to have a lot of languages!

Man. This is crazy. Good food for thought all round. We're back to discussing Hebrew school.

-Mich