Bilingual toys spell fun for kids in any language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Friday, November 25, 2005 - 12:00 AM

Bilingual toys spell fun for kids in any language

By Jill Sell
Newhouse News Service
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2002643032_bilingualtoys25.html

Whenever 23-month-old Sofia Drage sees someone she doesn't know, she
hides behind her mother. With reassurance, Sofia will peek around her
mother's leg. If she thinks a visitor is worthy, Sofia will count,
"One, two, three ... " all the way to 12. Then she'll do it again, only
this time, it's "uno, dos, tres ... "

Sofia's parents, Diega Bravo and Brendan Drage, of Kirtland, Ohio, are
teaching their daughter English and Spanish. Bravo believes
conversations, reading and singing with her daughter are the most
important ways to expose her to two languages. Sofia also plays with
bilingual toys.

They're catching on

Dolls and plush animals that speak two languages, puzzles with layers of
pieces in different languages and play kitchens that warn little cooks
that the "burner" is caliente are getting more attention from toy
manufacturers and consumers, said Jim Silver, co-publisher of Toy
Wishes magazine.

The popular Dora the Explorer character was introduced several years ago
on Nickelodeon and CBS. The bilingual toy tie-ins to the 7-year-old
Hispanic heroine opened the way for more bilingual toys to hit the
mainstream market.

Fisher-Price's Dora and the Hispanic Maya & Miguel dolls — based on
characters in Scholastic Entertainment's hit PBS show "Kids Go!" —
represent smart economics for toy makers. According to the U.S. Census,
the number of Hispanic children in the United States is expected to
increase 22 percent between 2001 and 2010. The total number of children
in this country increased by about 14 percent in the 1990s, but the
number of minority children rose about 43 percent.

Dolls have appeal

Cincinnati entrepreneur Selina Yoon is president of Master
Communications, a company she founded in 1994. It operates Asia for
Kids and Culture for Kids, online and catalog stores that sell
bilingual books, electronic media and toys.

"When I started this business, I thought I would be selling only
educational videos. I didn't think I would be selling dolls," the
Korean-born Yoon said. "But so many asked me for them."

Today, her Web site, Asia for Kids (www.asiaforkids.com), sells Language
Littles, soft-bodied, 16-inch dolls that offer a human-recorded voice
when pressed. Languages available include Chinese, French, German,
Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish.

The electronic Spanish-speaking Elmo is one of the most popular
bilingual toys available from eToys Direct (www.etoys.com), an online
and catalog store.

And public-relations director Sheliah Gilliland said it isn't just
bilingual households that are buying the toys. English-only speaking
parents want their young children to know some Spanish words so they
can interact with others in their classrooms, particularly if they live
in areas with significant Hispanic populations, she said. Many parents
also know that young children easily can pick up second languages.

Buttons push skills

Giving bilingual toys to children who live in monolingual families will
not make them fluent in a foreign language.

But parents such as Bravo appreciate them because young children enjoy
pressing buttons and getting a response. The repetition reinforces
vocabulary skills in more than one language.

Parents shopping for bilingual toys should pay attention to sound
quality, making sure the words are clear, spoken loudly enough and by a
native speaker.

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company