A new early-childhood second language program is being offered by Spanish Immersion Workshop (SIW) in Plainview. New to this area, classes started last year in Manhasset and Garden City. The program was developed to allow parents to give their children a developmental headstart in becoming multilingual, as area schools do not offer an early-childhood language program before grade six.

"We are educated parents," said one of the parents gathered outside the SIW classroom. "We know that these are key language learning years - and that if a child is not exposed to a second language at an early age, they will never be able to learn it as effortlessly and talk like a native speaker. The opportunity is gone."

SIW is specifically designed for children from the age of 6 months to 8-years-old and allows students to acquire Spanish naturally through playful interaction and entertaining full immersion. English translations are not used in class.

"At this young age, studies prove that children can easily learn any number of languages, as long as they have consistent and methodical exposure to the other languages," said Karina Gimenez, a native Argentine, founder and director of Spanish Immersion Workshop.

"I never imagined my 18-month-old would be able to learn Spanish. But, with the immersion approach ... it just comes naturally at this age," Manhasset mother Robin Lytle said.

Krista Irwin, of Garden City, said, "[My 2-year-old son] looks forward to class ... on days when we don't have class, but still pass the church in which the class is held, he shouts Hola from the backseat, and then Adios! He speaks a few words of Spanish regularly and seems to comprehend ... what Karina says in class."

Gimenez was educated in Argentina and studied early childhood language education. In the past two years, she has developed and implemented the early childhood Spanish program at Buckley Country Day school in Roslyn.

Dr. Jean-Marc Juhel, headmaster of Buckley Country Day School emphasizes the importance of Gimenez' background.

"Ms. Gimenez' greatest asset is her knowledge of the current research in second language learning pedagogy. She strives to put theory into practice in everything that she does in her classroom and the results show. ... her passion for her subject is infectious ... Our Spanish program has been received with praise by all and this is, in large part, due to Ms. Gimenez' exceptional teaching skills," said Juhel.

As a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Gimenez believes that all children should be exposed to a second language during their early years so that the critical neural linguistic pathways will be formed.

Spanish Immersion Workshop offers all year-round classes in Plainveiw at Wonder Years Academy and also in Manhasset, Huntington and Garden City. There are also classes for home schoolers. A free demo class is available so that parents and children can experience the program for themselves. Contact Spanish Immersion Workshop at 935-0699 or e-mail them at info@spanishiw.com for more information.