New language for two year old. Possible?

[Mummyteachmummy]

DD (just turned two) is starting with a Spanish nanny next month. I thought it would be great for them to do some Spanish together, maybe, ultimately (I understand this will take time, and maybe never happen!), only speaking to each other in Spanish.

My question is, what's the best way to go about this? How do I conceptualise it for DD? Her English is pretty good and she likes things explaining, so I thought it might be good to start now talking to her about the nanny knowing a different language etc?

Any experiences and/ or tips much appreciated as I really don't want to get it wrong (e.g. by going too quickly and her not bonding with the nanny as a result - I'd rather have a happy little girl who loves her nanny, than an unsettled one who knows a bit of Spanish!)

TIA!

I would think it is a very good time to start as they pick things up much better when they are younger

They learn English by being spoken to in it and given things and told what they are, the same way Spanish, French, German children do in there own homes

You may find rather than giving her Spanish lessons she is young enough to just learn it from the nanny if she speaks to her in Spanish fairly often and learn it along side English

I'm an Early Years SLT. We advise adults to speak to children in their own first language so the nanny speaking Spanish to DD would be best practice anyway. The nanny needs to use lots of visual cues (pointing, objects, actions, gestures) alongside her spoken words to help DD understand the meaning of the words but hopefully she would do that any way. No 'teaching' - just speaking to DD naturally in Spanish, just as you do in English. DD may go through a period of just listening to the nanny without much talking - she will need to work on her understanding before she feels confident enough to start using the words.

It sounds like her English is developing well so she will pick up Spanish no problem as a second language.

In all honesty, the best thing you can do is just get the nanny talking Spanish from the start and not even let on that she speaks English to your DD. At 2 she'll pick up a new language within months. Kids are absolute ruthless pragmatists when it comes to which language they'll speak - they speak whatever language is easiest for them in order to communicate with a particular person. At that age (partial) immersion is the only real technique that works.

I say this having brought up two actively bilingual DC and witnessed a lot more growing up. DD2 went to a child minder when she was 18 months who spoke a language she didn't understand and she managed fine while she went through the process of learning her second language.

"DD may go through a period of just listening to the nanny without much talking". Indeed, we found that with both DC. In fact, it was even more extreme with DD1, who was exposed to her second language at a year old and effectively learned both together - it delayed her active learning and language production for about a year while she sorted out the two languages passively. Then at around 3.6 to 4 she started speaking properly in both languages (and separating them correctly), and with no actual developmental delay. Not all DC go through that process, but it is sometimes the price to be paid for early bilingualism.

It's called 'The Silent Period' (unsurprisingly!) and is a normal part of bilingual development. So no pressure on her to start using Spanish words OP, you just carry on speaking to her in English as normal.

Ah, I didn't know that lotta, thanks for telling us the name.

You can influence bilingualism, but you can never totally control it because there are so many different factors. Both my DDs are pretty bilingual, but DD1 is marginally better at English and DD2 marginally better at German. Same country, same circumstances. The only reason, as far as I can tell, is that DD1 tends to speak English with her friends while DD2's friends are German-speaking - that had nothing to do with us.