How to Introduce Multiple Languages to Babies

The Story Behind Sound Beginnings, the Original Language Development System for Babies

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A Passion for Language.
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After graduation, I took a life changing German language class that used the revolutionary Lozanov Method which emphasizes having fun and learning like a child with songs, games, dances, and puppets. Often the teacher would just read to us with music playing in the background to develop our capacity to listen and hear the words before we ever attached meaning to the words. And in this class, I met my future business partner and language soulmate, Karen. 

Karen and I experienced first-hand that listening and learning languages like a child is a great way to quickly learn a second language. We both studied a second language in high school and focused on grammar and vocabulary for tests; it’s also an incredibly awkward time to practice speaking, especially when trying to act cool around our friends. We missed the phases of listening, repeating words and just having fun like a child learns language.

Over the years, our friendship and love of languages continued, and Karen actually bought the Lozanov Language School. When I had my second child, I really wanted to introduce a second language to him and my 2-year-old daughter, so I began searching for developmentally appropriate language learning products, and I didn’t find any. I approached Karen to help me create a product to help babies learn multiple languages. We began researching, designing and producing our own system – the Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies was born and launched in 1993.

You may be thinking that was a very long time ago – like another millennium, but we were quite literally at the dawn of the baby language movement. But unlike many of our competitors, we stayed true to the developmentally appropriate phases. The Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies focused on listening. Over 25 years later, the Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies is a true original that has stood the test of time. From audio cassette tapes to audio downloads, the Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies has remained a powerful tool for developing language skills in children.
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Sound Beginnings Language Development System: Original Cassette Tape Packaging

Sound Beginnings Language Development System: Original 2-CD Set Packaging

Sound Beginnings Language Development System: Professor Parrot 2-CD Set Packaging

Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies: Audio Download Graphic

When Should You Start Teaching a Baby a Second Language?
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Around the early 90s, research on baby brain development was just coming out with the invention of the MRI to show brain waves and neural pathways. And the research confirmed what we intuitively experienced many years before in our Lozanov class. Learn languages early and learn them in the phases that a child learns.

In the TEDXRainer talk, The Linguistic Genius of Babies, Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another – by listening to the humans around them and "taking statistics" on the sounds they need to know.

Start teaching the second language before the child starts to speak. Before they start to speak words, children listen and store almost everything they hear. This is the prime of their “critical period for absorbing language".
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- Patricia Kuhl: The Linguistic Genius of Babies

Babies are born “citizens of the world” and are primed to begin the process of learning any sound that the human voice can make. It’s an exciting time of rapid neural pathway growth and intellectual stimulation causes the number of synapses or connections to multiply at great speed, growing from 50 trillion to 1,000 trillion during just the first months of life. That process continues throughout life but according to a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, brain power is most receptive in the first few months of life.

These early years of life are very important because the brain is being wired for “sound recognition”. Infants who are routinely exposed to sounds from a variety of languages and music from different cultures develop tonal memories that enhance their ability to learn multiple languages later in life. Physical connections in the brain will in effect fade away if they are not used early in life.

Ages 0-18 months fall within the prime learning years for language. But don’t worry if your little one is a bit older, because all children and adults can benefit from the Sound Beginnings Language Development System.
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The Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies emulates the same basic steps that all humans follow to acquire language. There are 3 distinct phases of language acquisition:

1. Listening
2. Vocalization
3. Understanding

Can Babies Learn Two Languages at Once?
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During these early months, babies can discriminate the phonetic contrasts of all languages. By the end of the first year of life, babies become more specialized and attuned to their native language. This is called nascent specialization and neural sensitivity to native-language phonetic units increases while the ability to discern phonetic differences in other languages declines.

Babies respond to any language that they are exposed to, whether it is their native one or not. But over time, they become attuned to the language(s) they hear most. The benefit of hearing the many sounds of different languages is that babies develop the capacity to hear all the different sounds that the human voice can make. The first step is the ability to actually hear the differences.
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The languages that babies hear repeatedly will strengthen certain connections in their brains. Over time, languages they don’t hear will fade away. Routinely play the Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies Audio Downloads to reinforce multiple languages for your little ones.

How to Teach Languages to Babies?
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Babies retain their early exposure to foreign languages (Live Science). To encourage your baby’s language skills:

• Introduce your child to the sounds, music, and spoken words of different languages.
• Start by listening to different languages to create tonal memories that enhance language learning later in life.
  
  

Listening to the Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies is a great opportunity for you and your little one to just be together – no screen time just pure auditory enrichment. Pediatricians commonly recommend avoiding screen time for babies under the age of 18 months. ​According to an article by Perri Klass, M.D., “screen time doesn’t count for learning language in young children.” The Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies Audio Downloads are designed specifically for infants. Listen to the audio downloads often, as repetition can strengthen memory like exercise strengthens muscles.

Experts agree that the early years are prime learning for children. Babies are constantly absorbing their surroundings, which include culture, social interactions, and language. Providing a stimulating environment creates an actual physical change in the brain. Babies are most sensitive to the frequencies of the human voice.

For the Sound Beginnings Language Development System, we chose female voice (over talent) from native speakers for their tone, timbre, and ability to speak “motherese” and a music expert carefully researched the archives of the University of North Texas for the best folk melodies of each culture to perfectly complement each language.
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The Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies includes native speakers in 8 languages - Spanish, French, German, Russian, Hebrew, Japanese, English, and Chinese and traditional music from each culture keep in sync with each language’s rhythm providing a rich carefully designed auditory experience. Simply by listening, neural pathways are activated and sound recognition skills are increased, making it easier for your child to become bilingual, trilingual or even a polyglot (a speaker of many languages)!

What Makes the Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies Unique?
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The Sound Beginnings Language Development System was designed for babies to take advantage of this critical listening phase. The Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies contains nursery rhymes, lullabies, the alphabet, numbers, and other language specific phrases accompanied by soothing folk melodies appropriate for each language to enhance the overall experience.

We held focus groups to determine which languages were of interest to parents and which languages are important in the global community. We began with 6 languages and are now up to 8, with the most recent addition being Chinese.

The Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies sets the stage by creating tonal memories that your child will call upon later in life. Young minds benefit from a soothing yet stimulating environment for all the senses, especially hearing. While the brain is developing neural pathways vital for language acquisition, the Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies is providing the proper stimulation at the right time.

The Sound Beginnings Language Development System for Babies is all about listening to the wonderful sounds of the world.