Welcome to the Helen Doron Early Childhood Education Podcast. This is our third podcast. Here is your host, Helen Doron, Founder and CEO of the Helen Doron Education Group, which included Helen Doron Early English, Math Writers, Ready Steady Move, and soon to come an Early Childhood Education Program.
In this podcast, Helen relates information about interacting with babies, about baby sign language, and answers a list of listener questions recently sent in.
Helen:
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or whatever time of day it may be for you. Last time we talked about babies, their needs, and babies’ development, and many questions came in. Here are a few.
“I was very curious to hear at what age do babies want to communicate with their parents.”.
Babies try to communicate with their parents from day one, right from the beginning. Babies make sounds and the mother is delighted and so is father, and then some auntie tells them that it’s just gas [laughs] but don’t believe it. Baby is trying to communicate.
Baby is desperate to communicate. Baby needs this. Baby wants feedback. An immature breathing system will prevent the baby from being able to speak clearly, from the moment they’re born, so nonsense sounds come out. It doesn’t matter. Listen to these nonsense sounds and give some feedback
Baby doesn’t have the motor control either, to be able to do sign language. Only from about six or seven months will baby be able to do sign language. What do we do in the meantime? You need to listen to the baby. It’s very important.
Here are some simple tips:
- Number one, listen to your baby. Do this while looking at him and looking like you are listening.
- Number two, talk back to your baby.
- Number three, wait for a response from your baby, but baby may choose or may not choose to respond. A response isn’t obligatory.
- Number four, try to find the meaning in the sounds that baby is making.
- Number five, you should answer in real language not nonsense syllables. This is very important. That way, there is a dialog from day one.
The expressions on your face are something that baby responds to immediately, as well. When you’re angry, baby can see it. When you’re anxious, baby can see it. They say that babies try to imitate parents’ visual expressions from day one, their facial expressions from day one. So, the communication is verbal and the communication is visual. This is all very important.
“When my baby babbles, it is really difficult to give a serious answer. What would you suggest how to answer?”
There are two aspects to speech. One is input and one is output, or production. Baby needs to hear words a thousand times before he can produce them, and he can’t really start talking properly until he’s about seven or eight months. His vocal chords aren’t developed enough. His breathing system isn’t developed enough, but he input can be there.
Babies can understand what you are saying, so you need to talk in simple but real speech, in a slower tone, in a higher tone. In fact, “motherese” is something that I’m sure you do naturally, and most mothers all over the world do naturally. Motherese is when you speak to you baby; you not only look your baby in the eye, you speak slower, you speak in a higher pitch, and you speak in simplified speech.
Simplified speech isn’t pidgin speech. You don’t leave out verbs or articles. You will speak in proper speech because that is how baby learns. Again, it’s in a slower and higher pitch. In fact, if you listen to yourself, I’m sure that’s what you’re doing.
“My baby is four months old. Is it worthy to talk in rhymes to him?”
It’s really nice to use chants with young children. Children love chants. They love the magic and the rhythm of the chant. In fact, there was some research in Oxford, in England, that some three-year olds were aware that words were composed of separate sounds but other three-year olds didn’t possess this awareness. They discovered that the more the children had been exposed to nursery rhymes, really right from the beginning in their first year, the more the children were aware of the way the sounds were composed.
This means that the broader the child’s phonological awareness, which means his awareness of the sounds of his language and the rhythm of his language, the better his reading skills will be afterwards. This is a very important point. This means by doing rhymes and songs with your baby in the first few months, you’re actually working towards better reading skills, not just better poetry skills or better songwriting skills, or better linguistic skills in general. We’re talking about even better reading skills. Yes go for it; children love rhymes. You’ll probably find that these rhymes that you use at four months, by the age of a year, or year and a bit, your child will be able to say them all by himself, or fill in the missing word here and there because they’re so much a part of him.
Julian:
Hi, this is Julian. I will read the email questions that have come in over the last three weeks. “Playing the Helen Doron song CD at home, is this really so important? When I play the CD my daughter acts like she isn’t even paying attention to it. I feel this is a waste of time.”
Helen:
Fine, that’s fine. It’s fine not to pay attention to the CD. We call this “background hearing” not “attentive listening.” We say the child should do daily, twice daily at least background hearing of the CD. This is the way in which the brain will peripherally pick up the learning and absorb it, and stick it straight into long term memory. This is the way to really learn.
When your child comes to the lesson, all of a sudden the rhythm, the feel, the phonetics, everything to do with the language will just spill out; what she needs to learn in the lesson is the meaning of the sound she’s already absorbed. She will have absorbed it. Yes, that’s fine, when your daughter doesn’t pay attention she’s learning. As long as it’s playing, the CD is doing its work. Your daughter is doing her work and you are doing your work. That’s great.
Julian:
“What is the connection between baby signs and learning a new language?”
Helen:
Baby sign language is a way of replacing verbal speech with hand signs, which allow the parent to understand what baby wants to say. Babies understand what they want to express long before they can verbally express it. It’s very hard for children to say exactly what they want to, verbally, but with sign language they can say that they are cold, that they’re frightened, that they want a biscuit, that they want a carrot, that they’d like a glass of water, that the noise is too loud. They can say all sorts of things and express it to you.
Baby sign language is normally recommended from the age of about seven months, although I have read research that when people actually sign onto babies, as early as three months, the baby is understanding. When I say “sign onto them” that means using the sign language by touching them and using sign language on them. Normal baby sign language is used from the age of about seven months upwards.
There are many different baby sign languages, in many different countries. Baby sign language hasn’t been created so babies around the world can talk to each other. Baby sign language is for bonding between you and your child; however, it goes further than this. It goes further than the fact that your child can say how he feels without having to scream and with you looking at the baby screaming and thinking, “Oh my God, what could possibly be wrong!”
Baby sign language goes a lot further. Research clearly indicates that children do a lot better in school in second grade, linguistically and with IQ tests, when they’ve been baby signers. It shows that even three years after children have baby signed, which is the age of about four or five, the baby signers have greater linguistic competence than the baby non-signers. This means that other language centers in the brain are being stimulated and the baby’s language ability and concepts are, in general, richer for having learnt this additional language.
I personally know a lady from Poland, Eustina, and she told me that her daughter was on a flight with her, her daughter Gabriella. The child made the sign for pain and then touched her ear, showing that she was getting earache so they were able to deal with it on the plane instead of her just sitting there screaming, with them wondering what had happened. The child, at the age of eleven months, signed for pain and touched her ears.
Baby sign language is a form of verbal speech. It’s not body language. It replaces verbal speech while the child is too young to be able to actually verbally express herself. It’s extremely useful.
Julian:
“My son is one-year old and at home I speak German. My husband speaks Italian with him. Whenever I think about listening to the English CD with him at home, I don’t feel very comfortable about it. Isn’t it too complicated for him to differentiate between English, German, and Italian?”
Helen:
Children are programmed to learn any amount of languages that can be comfortably and systematically presented to them, up to the age of about six. I your case, this means you have the absolute ideal setup. You speak German. It’s very clear to him when and what is German. Your husband speaks Italian and it’s very clear to your child that Italian is a separate language. At home, you hear the English CD and in class you speak English. What could be clearer? Your child will have three different language centers in the brain, one for English, one for Italian, and one for German. Your child’s brain will be incredibly stimulated, and will create thousands and billions and trillions of new brain connections in your child’s brain.
What does this mean? This means that his brain will be developed, not only for language, but maybe for rocket science, maybe for music, maybe for biology. Who knows for what use your child will need his brain, but it will be a better tool for him to use for his whole life, and he will have three languages in a very easy, systematic manner. Wow! Isn’t that incredible?
Announcer:
Here is a special interview with Dr. Rita Falter.
Rita:
My name is Rita. I was born in Hungary. I lived many years in Germany. I studied in the United States. My background is medical. I studied medicine. During my studies, I had twins who later also became Helen Doron teachers. At the moment, they’re both studying at Cambridge University and due to the reason that I got to know the Helen Doron method and I could support them so that they could bring out their potential. They could really bring out their potential to very good results.
I personally teach 100 children every week. I’ve had the pleasure now to train approximately a thousand teachers in Europe. I’m very proud that I could influence the lives of so many who then, on their part, will influence the lives of so many children, to bring out their potential.
Female:
That is wonderful, and as a mother of twins also, I very much share this “How do you work with twins at home” type of feeling. You’ve achieved a lot.
Rita:
Thank you.
Female:
Can you tell us a little bit about what you would like to talk with me today?
Rita:
I would like to talk about a special effect of the Helen Doron method, which I see in my everyday life. I would like to share that with you. Besides all the positives that we give, offering them a lot of movement, offering them a lot of joy, we teach children by showing them that learning itself can be immense fun.
The teachers bring beautiful ideas to make learning language, which can be tedious, make it real fun. Besides that, we are doing something that is very important. The topic will be self esteem. According to latest research, about 20% of children have low self esteem, already, in grammar school. By the time they’ve finished high school, it’s 30%.
Female:
That’s huge.
Rita:
It’s huge, can you imagine; two-thirds of the people are feeling good about themselves but one-third feels inhibited by self esteem problems, to get out their best, to bring their best to this world. A lot of that is done through schooling, if children have to suffer through schooling, which brings down their self esteem.
Helen Doron does exactly the opposite. It strengthens their self esteem so that their inborn self esteem will lead them to success, and will make them happy people because they feel happy with themselves, and through self esteem, they can perform beautifully, and have success in life. Not just the children profit but all their surroundings profit from it, as well.
Female:
How does the Helen Doron method do that?
Rita:
By a very good, excellent mechanism. It starts already with teaching words. You can imagine that we are teaching, with the Helen Doron method, which is a mother-tongue method. It is without translation. We teach in the way a mother teaches her child their first language. Teaching a language, if you don’t have a means of translation, can be quite challenging. Teaching a language without the possibility as they have in school, which is translation; if you cannot translate, the children have to guess the meaning of the words.
You have to have a wonderful program, which we do. We get the meaning clear to the children and they understand, which constantly tells their mind they’re clever. “Hey, I got that. The teacher is talking in a strange language to me, but I know she showed me a cat. That’s a cat. I’m clever!” The “cha-zha,” or “zhoo-zhoo” or whatever the word is in the foreign language means “cat.” Every time the child guesses a word, he feels like a success.
We state that success creates motivation. This motivation will be carried on in the child’s soul. He will constantly be proud of himself because he is so clever; he understands and learns another language.
The second clue here is that we constantly offer group games and group crafts to the children so they feel accepted in the group, doing activities and games together, and through these games they’re practicing the language. That means we also could make it happen that without noticing it, the child practices the language. He will consider it as a game but actually it’s practicing English.
Female:
That’s wonderful. What happens if the child doesn’t guess correctly the word that the teacher is saying is
Rita:
It will be difficult not to guess it because our team is so clear. They are taught a specific technique, like a cooking recipe, that they can follow. It’s a simple to follow, step-by-step technique. The teacher will know how to teach 100% clearly, but there is no blaming. The child can still practice and enjoy learning, and will understand the meaning of a word.
Female:
That is great. This is basically the step-by-step practical basis for boosting the self esteem of a child.
Rita:
That’s right and here comes another principle; we don’t test individually when they’re in the group, but every child can participate when he likes. Nobody would be put on the spot so that they cannot embarrass themselves. It is not possible to embarrass themselves because whoever wants to participate will say it, and the others will learn.
Female:
So, they will be allowed to make mistakes
Rita:
Absolutely, and if they make a mistake, they will be praised for trying, so they can feel good about themselves. It’s a very healthy system.
Female:
That is good. That means that the groups must be - what is the typical size of such a group?
Female:
The typical size is 8; usually it’s around 7. Just like me reflected to yourself, can you imagine if you went to school with a cheerful teacher who always brought interesting ideas -
Rita:
You could have the possibility to move a lot because you would be playing games and there would be no chance for you to be embarrassed in front of the class. Can you imagine? That would be like Heaven.
Female:
Oh, what a refreshing thought.
Yes, it would.
Rita:
It would make learning so joyful that you wouldn’t want to stop doing it.
Female:
This has been very enlightening. Thank you very much
Rita:
It was my pleasure. Thank you so much for asking me.
Announcer:
That was Episode Three of the Early Childhood Education Podcast. Please find more episodes at the website, www.helendoron.com, or www.hightunes.com. Don’t forget to send us your questions to podcast@helendoron.com. To finish this episode, please enjoy listening to Ella Doron singing one of the songs from Baby’s Best Start.
Ella:
Tap, tap, fingers tap, fingers tap; tap, tap, fingers tap, fingers tap. Click, click, fingers click, fingers click; click, click, click fingers click.
Turn around and dance with Mommy. Turn around and dance with me. Turn around and dance together. Dance and dance and dance forever.
Clap, clap, clap your hands, clap your hands; clap, clap, clap your hands, clap your hands. Stamp, stamp, stamp your feet, stamp your feet; stamp, stamp, stamp your feet.
Turn around and dance with Mommy. Turn around and dance with me. Turn around and dance together. Dance and dance and dance forever.