Lana Privitera is the proud Mom of a fun-loving, bilingual "chatterboy" that likes to spice his speeches in English with long-winded Spanish words. Her goal for 2008 is to pack also some French and Italian in his very expandable 3.5 year old brain. Lana still qualifies as a SAHM but uses her "spare" time working as a watercolor artist and Spanish/art teacher.

The information below is an excerpt taken from The Multilingual Children's

Association webpage. If you want more valuable info about Bilingualism, please,

take a look at their website.

http://www.multilingualchildren.org/index.html

"Growing up with multiple languages is the easiest, fastest, and most effortless way

to learn a foreign language. For your baby, it will be as natural as learning one

language is to all babies.

* It is easier to learn another language from birth than it is during any other time

in life ‐‐ baby simply has two first languages.

* Your child will have a head start in school. In most countries, a foreign language

is mandatory.

* If your child wants to study more languages later in life, she will have a leg up.

The differences in sounds, word order, stress, rhythm, intonation and grammatical

structures will be easier to learn. For related languages, such as Spanish and French,

the similar vocabulary will make learning especially fast.

* Multilingualism has been proven to help your child develop superior reading

and writing skills.

* Multilingual children also tend to have over all better analytical, social, and

academic skills than their monolingual peers.

* Knowing more than one language helps your child feel at ease in different

environments. It creates a natural flexibility and adaptability, and it increases her

self‐esteem and self confidence.

* Your child will develop an appreciation for other cultures and an innate

acceptance of cultural differences.

* Career prospects are multiplied many times over for people who know more

than one language. Helen Riley‐Collins, president of Aunt Ann's In‐House Staffing in

San Francisco, said more than half her clients request nannies who speak another

language. "Families who are involved in international business are thinking ahead,"

she said of her clients, many of whom work in high tech, investment banking or

finance. "They want to give their children a head start in business in 20 years."

* If your native language is different from the community language, you probably

will feel emotionally closer to your baby when speaking your native language to her.