Have you heard any positive or negative experiences with putting a child into a language immersion program at 3 years old? We visited a Spanish immersion daycare a few months ago and it seemed like a great place for my 12 month old who had not started talking yet but I was worried that my 3 year old would have a hard time adjusting to his teachers only speaking Spanish. The kids speak English to each other but teachers only talk in Spanish to the children. Does anyone have any experience with this?
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Our kids are/were in German immersion with no German at home.
My son started an English/German daycare at 2 after never having heard German. Within 6 months he could speak and understand. At 3.5 we switched him to a German only center and the transition was fine. At age 6, he was put in the "native speaker" German class in elementary school.
My daughter had a German-speaking babysitter a few times a week starting at 4 months. She started German only daycare at 13 months and now, at 3.5 is basically a native speaker.
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It is such a good thing and will really help them adjust to learning a foreign language later on. Three is a great age to learn a new language, especially through immersion. His English might be slightly delayed and I don't recommend a 100% immersion program past 3rd grade (but a partial is fantastic and our plan(, but it is so great for preschool and early elementary
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@autumnleaves: Your older child might have a challenging time, but I think there are certainly things that you can do to offset that. As an example, I would send my kid to class with "feelings cards" that he could use when he's trying to express something to the teacher and is struggling. They could be very simple, like sad, mad, happy, hungry. I would be clear to the teachers that they are not intended to be a permanent thing, and create a reward system for their gradual discontinued use.
I would also model the behavior that I would want and would put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, by learning and practicing key phrases at home.
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Yes, I started my son in a language immersion school at a little over 2.5 and he has thrived there. The language wasn't an issue, and he started to pick it up after a few months. It helped that there were older kids there to help him feel comfortable and be leaders. He has been going there for almost two years now and still loves it!
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@lamariniere: that is awesome! I see so many benefits to learning a second language early on and I got a good vibe from the center I looked at.
@looch: those are great suggestions - thank you! I will definitely do both of them if we start him in this program.
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