Off the shelf language study packages for babies, children and adults
Families Online - May 06
This article is a roundup of various self-study packages available for learning French and includes packages from Berlitz, Usborne and Living Language. Germaine Broadbent, Head of Sales at Cactus, comments on Living Language: Learn French Together cassette & activity book package: "It's hard to comment on whether this 'works' in teaching a baby 0-2 years perfect French but it certainly is a lovely, gentle and enjoyable introduction to French. The author Erika Levy has an MA in Speech -Language Pathology, she sounds like she should know were stuff. This CD basically works in three ways a) it has lots of songs and rhymes in it that your baby can listen to and enjoy/learn as they do with any songs b) the general sound of the CD is soothing in itself and very baby and tired-parent friendly and c) there is a fairly interesting short book you can read about child language acquisition at the same time as your baby gurgles happily in their French world.
I would happily buy this for parent friends of babies. It is especially useful for those parents who already speak some French as a second language and would like to help their children experience language learning but do not have a wealth of French songs, poems and rhymes to sing or say to their baby. I can also say that children aged 6, 7 or 8 may well listen to it and enjoy it too!
A happy and contented 8/10