Customer Reviews

Baby's First Words in Italian

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My in-laws are native italian, from Calabria, and we really want our six month old daughter to learn to speak the language. I purchased this CD so that we don't miss the critical period in her development at which time she begins to "tune out" other languages. This CD is awesome! The songs, poems, and parentese are all fun and catchy and Nonna and Nonno say the lyrics are very sweet! The book itself is worth the price. The author of the book is an Assistant Professor of Speech and Language Pathology and Director of the Speech Production and Perception Lab at Teacher's College, Columbia University. This is the table of contents for the book:

~ Introduction to the Package
Chapter One: Critical Periods For Birds and Babies
Chapter Two: Helping Your Baby Talk
Chapter Three: Multilingualism: Is There Room For Two Or More Languages In One Brain?
Chapter Four: Babies Learn To Talk: Steps In Language Devleopment From Womb To Two
Chapter Five: Making the Most Of the CD
Chapter Six: The Sounds Of Italian
~Basic Italian For Parents
~Resources For Parents
~References
~Index

In Chapter Five there is a detailed expaination of how the CD is arranged: "The CD is divided into four sections corresponding to the first four six-month periods of your baby's development. The songs, rhymes, ans speech sounds have been carefully designed to emphasize the important aspects of Italian that your child is uniquely open to absorbing at each developmental stage. Each section contains all the sounds in the Italian inventory so that your child may continue to perceive them accurately" (pg. 51).

The four sections of the CD are:
1. Rhythm and oohs: Newborns to 6 months
2. Oohs and aahs: 6 to 12 months
3. Words of wisdom: 12 to 18 months
4. Aha-language! 18 to 24 months


The lyrics for all of the songs, poems, rhymes, and parentese are included in both Italian and English. If you want your little one to be exposed to the Italian language this CD is a must-have!

Please note that the CD titled Baby's First STEPS In Italian Baby's First Steps in Italian is the exact same CD as this one only it was published earlier under that title. I made the mistake of thinking it was a different CD and purchased it twice.

If you would like more Italian music for your little one, I highly recommend Canzoni Per Bambini, Volume I and Canzoni Per Bambini, Vol. 2.

I am shocked to read the other reviews! This is my 1yr old's son favorite CD and we love it too. I lived in Italy 10+ years, my husband is from there(39 years living there) and my son is raised in a bilingual family. The songs are excellent and catchy, quality fabulous, singers great and contents are very well done. The woman and children on the CD have perfectly authentic pronunciation. My son goes to sleep every night listening to his CD and our whole family loves it. I HIGHLY recommend this set and hope they make many more!!

I bought this CD becasue I wanted my daughter to listen to Italian music. I have no clue what they are saying but the CD does come with the words in Italian and English. The music is fun and lively and the poems sound great. She loves to dance to the music. I am of Italian descent so I am hoping to pick up a word or too. I love this CD and would recommend this to everyone. I am sure those who speak Italian would enjoy it too.

I was really happy with this CD. I'm 100% Italian, and speak Italian fluently. My parents are both Italian immigrants. This CD is great because it teaches the proper way to speak Italian, and everything is pronounced correctly. My 1 year old son loves listening to the songs. He loves one song especially. The song teaches you about different animals, and the sounds that they make. We always laugh together when we hear it. I am looking forward to finding out wether or not he will pick up Italian words from the CD. If so, my parents would be so proud. This CD is a good blend of vocabulary and music.

I had this CD since my son was an infant. Unfortunately, the CD was broken and I wanted to replace it. I decided to take the Audible download since I already had the book, figuring I could burn it to CD on my own. But I was disappointed on two fronts. First, the audio quality is terrible. It is tinny and appears to be in mono rather than stereo. Second, there are no track breaks like on the CD!!! This is over an hour of music with no track breaks. It's all in one continuous track! Terrible. I'm very disappointed. I won't be buying again from Audible. Ever.

As for the content of the CD, it's fantastic.

My husband & I are both teachers, and we found this CD to be of excellent quality. I was truly impressed with the variety of songs & dialogue that are offered on it. It's helping both of us to improve our Italian as we teach our daughter.

My kids love this CD, great songs. Even my 1yr old is singing along to a couple of the songs. Great for kids and if you are the type that learns from music, then this CD is perfect. The CD is done well with a translation book and a small instruction book. The songs are good with catchy tunes and sounds for small children to teens.

I thought the price tag of over $30 was a joke... It is. Do a google search. I found numerous sites where the product sells for around $13 NOT $31 and up....

Being of Italian descent I was excited to get this for my 6 month old son. It's been 10 months and the little guy still loves it! He even takes his nap everyday to it. He still is too young to speak much English or Italian, but I think this CD may well pay off in the future, and even if it doesn't he loves listening to it so much, it was still worthwhile! Do yourself a favor and purchase this CD! Highly recommended.

My son has been listening to these since before he was born. There is a mix of poems and songs. Most the songs are silly and do not make all that much sense but they are funny up beat and entertaining even for adults. The good thing is the way these songs are played it is really good for pronunciation and overall learning the language. Would recomend them to anyone wanting to learn italian. There is also a book included which we haven't used much. This CD really does calm my son.