Emily Oster

2 minute read Emily Oster

Emily Oster

Should You Buy Children’s Books in Another Language?

Q&A on developmental benefits

Emily Oster

2 minute read

Are there any benefits to buying toddler books in another language if your household only speaks English? How much exposure do kids need to a language for it to have any developmental benefits?

—Did I buy all books in Spanish for nothing?

The primary benefit to multiple language exposures at young ages is that this is the time children can most easily learn language. If (for example) one parent speaks English and the other speaks Spanish all the time, children will generally learn both. And they’ll do it a lot more easily than you or I would learn a new language.

William Fortunato / Pexels

This is less a developmental benefit than a practical one — if you care about your child speaking a second language, then this is a way to achieve it.

If you do not speak another language, your child is not going to pick it up at home and they are not going to learn it from reading books. That doesn’t mean you do not want to buy the occasional book in Spanish! Exposure to these sounds, the idea of other languages — all great. But expecting your child to learn Spanish from books? No.
If this is important to you, you’ll have to invest in other ways. A caregiver who speaks another language. A dual-immersion preschool. Or, my personal favorite, only allowing your child to watch television in the other language. But books are not going to do it.

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