When and How introducer a second language?

[Robério]

I would like to know when e how to introducer a second language to my son. He is 3 year old, we are brasileiros and our maternal language is português.

[Lawyer&Mom]

The easiest way at that age, if you don’t mind screen time for him, would be to have him watch television in your target language.  Assuming you want him to learn English, something like Daniel Tiger or Dora the Explorer would be very accessible at that age.  I was afraid that my kids wouldn’t watch TV in a foreign language, so I didn’t start until they were around six.  I was totally wrong.  They loved watching cartoons, and since only let them watch cartoons in French they were very eager to do so.  I wish I had started when they were younger!

Eventually you will want to expand from television to reading books and speaking etc., but daily television will build passive understanding of the language, and that’s how kids start to learn their native languages.  Passive understanding is a great foundation to build on. 

[Gil]

It would depend on what your expectations and aspirations are. I taught the words and phrases that I needed/wanted The Boys to know to interact in the target language at home. Later we did use TV only in the target language, but we didn't start out with it.

With the TV, I went in systematically. I taught the vocabulary and phrases that were in their favorite shows or that were needed to understand the show or discuss the show.

I found that Reading Comprehension stalled out behind their passive comprehension.