As 26th September 2008 is European Day of Languages we thought it would be a good idea to look at young children and language learning.

We all know about the social and educational pressures on children at younger and younger ages. This can make them feel like they are being robbed of their play and enjoyment of just being children! On the other hand, we also know that the younger children are exposed to the sounds of other languages, the more chance there is of them distinguishing between all those different sounds and languages as they get older.

In the first 12 months of life, a baby categorises the sounds needed to speak its own language. Newborn babies are able to distinguish between all speech sounds, but after 12 months lose the ability to distinguish between sounds to which they are not exposed. For example, Japanese people can rarely distinguish between the sound R and L. Because their language does not contain distinct R and L sounds Japanese new-borns are not often exposed to them.

After about a year, babies begin to turn sounds into words, and in a process called ‛fast-mapping' babies begin to associate words with objects. They do this by hearing other people around them, so one of the most important things a parent does is simply to talk to their baby. By two years most children will have the command of between 20 and 50 single words, and by now the learning process accelerates at a fantastic rate. By the time they are five most children will have a vocabulary of around 5,000 words, and this rate of learning continues into primary education and only starts to slow down in adolescence. Children develop grammatical rules without being explicitly taught them, and will naturally experiment with how language fits together in their early years, sometimes with hilarious effect. Children really like playing with sounds and you only have to listen to a playground to hear language being experimented with through games, songs and nonsense rhymes.

However in these contemporary times we all know that it is not always possible to be at home playing and having fun with your child. Many a time we are stuck in the car doing the school run for their siblings, driving to the baby or tiny tunes groups, going on holiday... and how difficult is it to keep children entertained whilst on the move?

There is an answer to this. Think of the times when your child was strapped into the car-seat, with little choice of what to do, and how they would sing along to the tunes of the CD that you have got in the car. Remember the times with the whole family travelling to a holiday destination that will inevitably end up in endless ‛are we there yet?!' And standard adult radio is not always an appropriate choice for very young ears and can make children restless.

But then how nice it is when you all end up singing those nursery rhymes, or when everyone knows all the lines in the Jungle Books' CD story. What better time than when captive in the car for your child to be exposed to the sounds of a second language with the enjoyment of clapping, waving, smiling and singing those lovely cheerful rhymes, not only in English but also in French or Spanish.

Juliet Machan, co-founder of babyboomboom says, "We are not trying to teach children languages, but to familiarise and stimulate with a view to unlocking the potential of our little ones minds whilst having fun. Research shows that babies recognise music that they have heard frequently from a very early age - even whilst in the womb, and we all know how good babies are at mimicking what they see and hear in their daily routine. We have been amazed at just how quickly children start doing the actions in the other languages - even before they can speak, and how quickly once they can speak, they start mimicking the sounds!''

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