The Smart Child Academy Series

Supporting early speech development in Polish will help achieve bilingualism.

Speech therapists emphasize that the key to achieving full bilingualism is to dedicate as much time as possible to a child's exposure to Polish – speaking, conversing, reading, playing, and exploring Polish – all of which will have a significant impact on Polish language development and the achievement of full bilingualism in the future.

The Smart Child Academy is a series of books for young children that encourage learning through play, thus helping to develop Polish language development. Each book will encourage entertainment and support the cognitive development of two- and three-year-olds. Cardboard books with cut-out shapes, moving pictures, and books with erasable markers are excellent for developing manual skills and fine motor skills, while also exploring topics relevant to young children and satisfying their curiosity. Colorful illustrations, playful elements, and age-appropriate texts positively impact the development of visual and auditory perception and encourage interaction between the child and an adult, which is essential for proper speech development.

The Smart Child Academy is an excellent way to introduce Polish as a minority language into your bilingual home from an early age. The books in this series are excellent for supporting a young child's speech development and encouraging conversation between parents and children in the earliest years of development. Through dialogue and conversation about what's in the picture, we can develop understanding of Polish and speak to the child, even when the child can't yet respond, but can, for example, point to or imitate the parent's voice. Building and maintaining verbal contact with the child is the foundation for speech development and, consequently, for bilingual success.

These titles will help children joyfully explore the world, as they address topics that are familiar and easy to understand, such as:

• Animals – Curious Kitten, Who Goes Hue-hue, Pets, Animals and Pets

• The Neighborhood – At Home, At Night, My Body, Whose Potty Is This?

• Shapes, Colors, Numbers, Professions

How can parents support their child's bilingualism?

Parents have a significant influence on whether their child will speak Polish in the future and whether they will become fully bilingual. It's best to dedicate plenty of time to active contact with the Polish language from an early age – speaking, conversing, reading, playing, and learning in Polish – all of this will have a significant impact on the development of the minority language and achieving full bilingualism in the future.

These tried and tested materials will help you learn Polish.

For the youngest:

Playing in Polish

I Speak Polish

I Listen and Learn to Speak – a speech therapy series helpful in speech therapy.

For the youngest children, we also recommend other series recommended by speech therapists, teachers, and parents of bilingual children:

Pucio

Kicia Kocia i Nunuś

Nice and Comprehensive

And for parents, we recommend guides and books on attachment parenting, which will help you better navigate your parenting role and benefit from the extensive experience of psychologists and other parents.