As a mom, it’s natural to want your child to be ahead of the curve, but life throws curveballs sometimes. One day, our nanny shared that our 2-year-old daughter was the only kid in her soccer class who couldn’t identify colors. I felt terrible. My firstborn, and already falling behind?
So, I started working with her right away, using items like colorful bears and identifying colors throughout our day to teach her the names of the colors. Since Spanish is my first language, I also made it a point to teach her the colors in both English and Spanish. I want my kids to speak Spanish fluently, especially because my mother doesn’t speak English, and I want them to connect with their heritage. Plus, there are so many cognitive benefits to learning multiple languages early on.
The challenge? My husband doesn’t speak Spanish, so we’re a primarily English-speaking household. I had prioritized hiring a nanny who spoke Spanish to give my kids at least 40 hours of Spanish exposure each week. While this helped lay a strong foundation, our nanny had a different accent and dialect than I did. I started wondering: Could this be causing confusion for my daughter? Was she struggling with identifying colors because she was hearing them in two different languages and multiple Spanish dialects?
I also worried about the potential confusion of teaching her two languages at once. As a bilingual person myself, I sometimes mix languages up, so I wondered if I was overloading my child’s learning.
But research shows that learning two languages simultaneously doesn’t hinder development—in fact, it can have many positive effects. So, I decided to stick with it and continue teaching her colors in both English and Spanish throughout our daily routine.
Even with this consistency, I couldn’t shake my concern about the dialect differences with the nanny. While I was at work, I wanted to ensure my daughter was hearing my pronunciation of the colors in both languages. That’s when Glow Bears came in handy! I could record the pronunciation of the colors in both English and Spanish and have the nanny play my recordings, showing my daughter the colors throughout the day. This allowed her to reinforce what I was teaching without me having to be the only one reciting them with her.
With this added support, we kept the routine consistent, and within less than two weeks, our daughter was confidently identifying colors in both English and Spanish! It was such a relief to see her catch up and succeed. Glow Bears made all the difference, providing an easy way to maintain consistency and removing some of the stress of balancing language learning with my work schedule.
This experience taught me that finding the right tools and resources—whether educational aids or even asking for help—can make life easier for both you and your child. If you’re facing a similar challenge, don’t hesitate to ask for support or try new approaches until you find what works best for your family’s unique needs.
Learning and growing together is all part of the parenting journey. Sharing my story in case it helps another mom.
It takes a village! Sharing my story in case it helps another mom. 💕
Supporting Sources:
A study from the University of Washington found that bilingual babies exhibit increased activity in brain regions associated with executive functions, such as attention and cognitive control. Bilingual baby brains show increased activity in executive function regions | UW News
Similarly, research led by Dr. Agnes Melinda Kovács at the Central European University demonstrated that bilingual infants show advanced cognitive flexibility compared to their monolingual peers. In experiments assessing conflict resolution and shifting attention, 17-month-old bilingual infants outperformed monolinguals, suggesting that early exposure to two languages enhances adaptability in cognitive processes. Effect of bilingualism on infants’ cognitive flexibility | Bilingualism: Language and Cognition | Cambridge Core
These findings underscore that introducing infants to two languages not only facilitates language development but also bolsters executive functions and cognitive flexibility, laying a strong foundation for future learning and adaptability.