Sakshi and MS Dhoni's adorable two-year-old Ziva Dhoni has already become a social media favourite. With videos of her playing in her parents, playing the piano and sometimes trying to mouth new words, already going viral, she has quickly managed to gather her own set of faithful fans.
And while people are often seen congratulating the young couple on their parenting skills and the many things they teach their little bub, Sakshi and Dhoni can added one more achievement to their list. That of teaching their daughter a whole new language.
Yes, that's absolutely correct.
Ziva sings in Malayalam!
At an age where kids barely learn to speak clearly in their own mother tongue, Ziva has been singing away in Malayalam. Take a look.
The video, in which Ziva is seen singing the popular Malayalam song Ambalappuzhe unnikannanodu nee has already received close to 200,000 views in just a few hours. People are not only commenting on her oratory skills, but also wondering how she learnt it so well.
But the fact that Ziva has picked up a whole new language (which is not spoken by anybody in her home) is an indication of how young kids can do so with ease.
Young kids learn two different languages at an incredibly fast rate
In fact, studies suggest that kids can learn a new language the same time as their mother tongue.
Erika Levy, Ph.D., and assistant professor of speech and language pathology at Columbia University Teachers College, New York City, recently told a website, "Kids this age (2-3) are developing language skills rapidly, and they quickly absorb whatever they hear. They can learn to understand new words in two different languages at an incredibly fast rate."
So how do you start introducing a new language to your kids?
3 ways to introduce a new language to kids
Here are five ways to teach preschoolers a whole new language.
- Start early: A child between the ages of two and three is learning everything quickly. They are not only expanding their vocabularies at this age, but are also recognising speech patterns. So the earlier you introduce a new language to kids, the faster they will be grasp its sounds and phonetics. In fact, Francois Thibaut, director of the Language Workshop for Children in New York notes, "the ability to hear different phonetic pronunciations is sharpest before age 3, and we lose the capacity to hear and produce certain sounds if we aren’t exposed to them early on. So just hearing a television show, listening to music, or learning a few words in a second language will give your child essential tools for appreciating it now and learning to speak it later."
- Begin with one word at a time: If you want your kid to learn and understand a new language, do not be in a marathon rush. You can start with simple things such as pointing at objects and sharing the two different names they are given in two different languages. Kids pick up such things quickly and with repetition, will be able to distinguish between the objects' bilingual names.
- Set a realistic expectation: To expect your child to just immediately listen and grasp is not realistic. So set realistic goals for your kids and work slowly with them. On being exposed to music, words, movies or even videos of a different language, your child will pick up words, ask for their meaning and slowly learn to speak them using proper phonetics. And if you repeat the words in a day often enough, your kid will most certainly speak as well as understand it well, just as with his/her mother tongue.
Also read: Can you guess which second language will help your kid in life the most?
(All images courtesy: Instagram)
