Customer Reviews

7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child

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This book is an excellent and easy to read step-by-step guide for anyone interested in raising children with a second (or multiple) language. It is an invaluable tool for parents and teachers alike. The guide is exceptionally rich in personal narratives and practical advices based on research results and Steiner's personal experience as a mother and pediatrician who raises her own children multilingual. The author demystifies bilingualism and encourages parents to participate in second language education at any child age. If parents do not speak a second language, she suggests for example to incorporate the language experience of the babysitter or others. She inspires to introduce world languages to young and older children as well as to their parents (e.g. to the husband who is not fluent in his wife's first language). One very important point that the author makes is that language is a tool serving the communication.

Having been raised monolingual by my parents in a non-English speaking country, I was introduced to world languages during middle and high school, but at that time I never really used the languages actively, mostly in fear to say something wrong and make mistakes (but still it helped having this basis). After having come to the U.S. at an "older age", I needed to communicate in English which I did not speak or understand fluently. At the same time, I had to raise my children in-between languages. Steiner encourages me that it is perfectly normal when my children (or I) sometimes for example mix a foreign, primary language word into their (or my) dialogue, not because we are "confused", but because that is an easier way of communication and part of a learning process. Thank you, Dr. Steiner, for all your great realistic recommendations.

As a parent of a bilingual kid myself, and coming from a multilingual family, I can strongly relate with Dr. Naomi Steiner's thoughts and ideas about raising a bilingual child. Not only has she helped me and my husband understand what we have been through in the last decade with our child, but in her book we found strong encouragements and research findings to support our decision to raise a bi- or even a multi-lingual child.

Dr. Naomi Steiner is also a "maestro" to providing parents willing to raise their kids multilingual with the means and methods necessary so that they are successful and rewarded in their effort. I agree with her that at the end of the day, it is really not an effort; it becomes a way of life and enriches a child's communication with the rest of the world. Dr. Steiner has debunked a few myths we had ourselves about "confusing" our child if we try to teach two different sets of spelling and reading rules, and about letting her figure out other languages, such as Chinese (Mandarin) or Japanese, in which she expressed a keen interest at a young age.

I truly believe this book will change not only our child's life, as after reading it we became even more determined to raise a multilingual kid, but our lives as well. It was my exposure to multiple European Languages in school that helped me understand the importance and great benefit of at least understanding the basic words in another language - especially if you like to travel a lot, as we do. But now, living in the Boston area and meeting people speaking different languages every day, it became more apparent that it gives us a special connection with them when we are able to say a few words in their native language.

In Dr. Naomi Steiner's book, "7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child" we found everything we needed to enrich our daughter's life, to provide her the facts and the methods of integrating her second, and why not her third and maybe fourth language in her everyday life, and expose her to the beautiful and uniqueness of her grandparents' and her parents' first language culture, as we know for sure this is a gift to her.

Thank you, Naomi, for such a great book and I warmly recommend it to all parents and all the people decided to follow this path - the multicultural path!

Chris, MA

Naomi Steiner's book makes a very compelling case for the great benefits that come from knowing a second language. The book is an empowering and invaluable tool for parents who want to expose their children to a second language. The author breaks down the bilingual action plan into small steps that make the goal of raising bilingual children seem completely attainable and, of course, absolutely worthwhile. The book also offers plenty of real-life examples of different approaches parents can use when raising bilingual kids as well as practical solutions to the inevitable challenges parents encounter in raising bilingual children. I highly recommend it!

This review comes through my wife's account. I loved this book! I am a native speaker of a foreign language, married to a native English speaker and a father of two boys (6 and 2 yrs old). I have been struggling to teach my boys my native language and have somehow always found a "good excuse" for not doing it (too tired, it's not perfect when they try to speak it, they don't respond, etc.). Dr. Steiner's book helped me deal with all the possible issues and excuses you can imagine and not just that, it inspired me to start teaching my language to my children anew and stick with it! There is a lot of practical advice, do's and dont's that any bilingual parent should have an insight into. Thank you Dr. Steiner for inpiring me to just do it!! Would recommend to any parent who wants to raise their children bilingual, especially to ones who tried and think they are "failing" and that "it doesn't work"!

Fabulously written with concrete ways to teaching your child more than one language.Dr. Steiner has been my family's physician for more than 5 years now- we appreciate one anothers lingual abilities- I use ASL and Spanish with my children and also used to teach Spanish and Italian. This guide is a great first step for parents and also a wonderful resource book for language teachers to pull concrete reasons together to bolster their language programs!

The book makes an excellent point of why it is good and important to raise our children bilingual. However, it is written for families who reside permanently in the US (or in any ONE country), and not for families who relocate constantly. I wish the book had at least one chapter dedicated to US families who have to reside abroad and move frequently from one country to another for professional reasons. Bilingualism (and even multilingualism) in these cases is not a choice, but almost a matter of survival. I was looking for strategies to handle this type of environment with my kids. I guess I will have to continue looking for another book.

It's not always easy for us "Monoglots." Finding a language program for your child -- and then persuading the child to engage in it -- is sometimes hard. Dr. Steiner has researched and proven why learning a second (or more)language as a young child is important. Her book makes a compelling case for finding language programs for your child (if not offered in their elementary school)and gives some valuable tools for sticking with your bilingual goals. I walked away from this book convinced that making another language available to my children was a valuable gift and one worth pursuing.

This book is written in a very simplistic way. The author treats the process of raising bilingual children as a procedure, that is, if you do these things as she suggested, you will be successful. The author really needs to do some in-depth research on the process of bilingual acquisition and development. In addition, the references listed are too limited.