The Babbler...Creating Spanish Geniuses!

back when I was a neurotic, obsessive first time mom (um as opposed to now when I'm a neurotic obsessive 2.5 time mom, right?) I read up and purchased this award winning toy called, THE BABBLER.

found here :The_Babbler

essentially, it's a stuffed toy (see left) that babbles in Spanish, Japanese and French..."nnn ano, oui, oui ouight, do do do domo"
I played with it with Mischiefmaker#1 (and later Mischiefmaker#2) at least once a day for their first 6 months of life...

the idea behind the toy is that babies learn language early through the basic phonemes (elements of language) by hearing their parents speak...these phonemes are wired in a child's brain as an infant...so if you expose a child to foreign phonemes as an infant, later when that child learns a different language, he would be easily able to recall the s0und and have an easier job of mastering a new language other than his/her native one...

fast forward 5 YEARS...as I re-started Mischiefmaker#1 in his Spanish flash cards (his rotten principal a year ago cut out Spanish from early childhood classes and so that left it up to me to take up where they left off! poo!), I noticed that his inflection, intonation and pronunciation of the Spanish words are VERY VERY AUTHENTIC SOUNDING!

I recall taking college Spanish and cringing every time I heard the sorority girls mispronounce words "YO TENGO HAMBRE", they'd drawl in their valley girl or American southern belle accents...so to hear a 5 year old get the inflection right blew me away and made me think....hmmmm for this next kid I just might have to dig up that old Babbler or figure out whomever I loaned it to.... :)