Hello,
I am from Germany and new to this great forum. I recently started doing flashcards with my 18-month old daughter who has down syndrome. Since we are speaking both German and English to her, I also want to teach her to read in both languages simultaneously. But how do I best approach this without confusing her? One idea was to show her the flashcards with the german word, then the english word then a photo (showing the meaning of the word), etc. would this work? Or is it better to keep the languages separate in a flashcard session?
Also, in your experience when is a good time to move from words to couplets and sentences? Do children give us any cues on when they are ready for the next stage?
We do it separately.
first one language, then the second one. But we have also different vocabulary in the languages. started with the second one later. (first German, then English )
Often parents are doing one language in one session , in the next one the seocnd languaage. The child has no problem to have 2 language in one session.
to start with couplets, phrases is possible after some weeks of showing words.
I would separate them but the most important thing to remember with any kind of reading program is to be consistent in how often & I’m the manner you show them.
Can I first just say VERY GOOD! ? Methinks that everybody should learn at least two languages.
I’d ‘split’ the flash cards; have one language at the top and the other at the bottom, with some way to tell the two apart (ink colour perhaps) to avoid confusion.
If youlook at that ‘Dora the Explorer’ program, they mix two languages (mainly using one languages but dropping in things in a second language). So presenting German and English as equal seems quite acceptable to me.
As such.
Of course there are some practical problems; if a Flashcard has YOU on it, do you put SIE for the German or DU or both?
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