Local Santa Clarita residents, Roger and Tara Johnson, have been searching for years for affordable Spanish lessons that will truly teach their three children the language when they discovered Francois Thibaut’s Language Workshop For Children in New York City. Thibaut pioneered The Language Workshop’s distinctive Thibaut Technique in 1973. His method combines a carefully structured curriculum with a child’s innate love of play. To meet the tremendous demand for foreign language lessons for children in Los Angeles County, Roger and Tara decided to open A Small World, where they only use the proven curriculum of the Thibaut Technique.

At A Small World, language comes alive! Invite your children to A Small World and soon they will be speaking a foreign language!

THE DIFFERENCE IS IN THE METHOD
Thibaut Technique instructors have taught thousands of children since 1973. The LWFC structured playgroups let parents capture the window of opportunity years when children possess their greatest capacity to absorb and retain language. Just because a program uses foreign songs and games doesn't mean kids are learning. The difference is in the method. Each instructor at A Small World is personally trained in New York City by Mr. Thibaut to use his educationally effective technique, proven for over 35 years. Children's minds are engaged in animated classes that systematically use original LWFC songs, games, time-tested visual aids, and more. François Thibaut works with professional composers to develop the award-wining vocabulary-building songs produced by The Language Workshop. These happy songs allow a child to learn a language's distinct sounds and grammar, teach relevant vocabulary, and give kids an easy way to practice their new language. Each new season every student receives a fresh song CD tucked into a colorful, professionally illustrated and printed "Songs and More™" workbook to take home, practice with, and keep. The LWFC's "Songs and More" series is available exclusively through Thibaut Technique classes. Since the melodies and the words change every season, all students learn something new.

The Thibaut Technique leads children to speak spontaneously. They don’t simply memorize dialogues or word lists, they absorb and internalize new language. First they hear, then they understand and finally they speak… the same way they learn their own language. At A Small World, native fluent instructors teach entirely in the second language so that their students absorb the new language naturally – through understanding, not translating. Thibaut Technique students learn to speak with an excellent, business standard accent while embracing their new language – and perhaps most importantly – retaining it.

A Small World uses time-tested visual aids. Visual aids must truly symbolize and reinforce vocabulary in order to be effective. By observing its students over the years, the LWFC has refined its visual aids so they truly illustrate the new words your child is hearing. Visual aids can seem nearly identical, however, they vary tremendously in the results that they produce and their capacity to convey understanding and transmit vocabulary to memory.

Thibaut’s insights into children’s early language education have been heralded by Working Mother, People Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Better Homes & Gardens, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and the BBC, as well as by many parenting magazines.

Classes are limited in size so each child can be nurtured and encouraged and feel less self-conscious.

A SECOND LANGUAGE: WHY?
The study of a foreign language is scientifically linked to higher IQ scores and standardized test scores as well as higher academic achievement throughout a child’s schooling. Children who learn a second language also exhibit superior problem solving and critical thinking skills, improved memory and self-discipline and heightened creativity.

By studying a foreign language, children learn the Latin roots -- vital in order to achieve competitive SAT or ACT verbal test scores.

Experts point out that children who learn a second language also achieve greater success in their native language and in mastering analytical subjects. As they mature, they ultimately increase their job prospects in an increasingly global world.

- “In most cases, learning another language enhances a child’s English ability.”
- “Children can learn much about English by learning the structure of other languages. Common vocabulary also helps - -children learn the meaning of new words in English.”
- “In addition to developing a lifelong ability to communicate with more people, children may derive other benefits
-- from early language instruction, including improved overall school performance and superior problem-solving
-- skills.”
Eric Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics

“Students who have had at least four years of a foreign language tend to score higher on both the math and verbal
portions of the SAT than those who don’t.”
College Board

A SECOND LANGUAGE: WHEN?
Experts concur that when it comes to learning a second language, earlier is better. The youngest learners have the strongest neurological capacity to absorb and imitate languages. When these very young – and sometimes pre-verbal – children are immersed in a second language, the words they learn become a permanent and fundamental part of their brain map. They become hard-wired in the second language as well as the first. Therefore the more years a child can devote to learning a language, the more competent he or she will become. And children who learn a language before the onset of adolescence are much more likely to have native-like pronunciation.

“The ability to learn a second language is highest between birth and the age of six, then undergoes a steady and inexorable decline. Many adults still manage to learn new languages, but usually only after great struggle.”
TIME Magazine

“…the window for language learning is in the first six years.”
TODAY’S PARENT

“The brain is most primed to learn a new language when children are learning to speak their native tongue. After about age seven, it becomes neurologically more difficult.”
Naomi Baron, Ph.D., Professor of Linguistics, American University, Washington, D.C.

A SECOND LANGUAGE: HOW?
The difference is in the method. The Thibaut Technique is the #1 technique for teaching children foreign languages… even before they can speak. The curriculum has been perfected for over 35 years and is recognized by major networks and publications around the world.

Thibaut says, “It takes the right combination of details to truly engage a child who is learning a new language. Unless the activities appeal to the child’s sense of fun and wonder, the child will not pay attention and the child will not learn. A class that simply adapts and sugar-coats an adult program cannot produce results in children.”

Through A Small World’s structured playgroup classes, taught by native fluent instructors, children truly learn as they play and sing. The Thibaut Technique’s curriculum of vocabulary-building songs, visual aids and language immersion games, makes all the difference between the child who retains what he has learned for life, and the child who forgets it all in a few weeks.

Your child will never be more receptive and ready to learn a second language than today. The prime time for effortless second language acquisition is now, so don’t delay. Give your child the advantage they deserve.

Every day counts. Enroll today!