I am not sure what made me think that these DVD's would be good for Andrew and Kathlena except that they are simple and have lots of music in them. I bought one the second week we were home and Andrew watched it 5 times back to back. He was hooked. Kathlena was not as interested at first in the one we had(Animals in the neighborhood). We later found out that our library carried many of them so we began trying different ones out. Our favorite by far and most helpful has been...My First Signs.My First signs I think is particularly great for international adoptive families because it teaches the children a very simple sign language that they can mimic and use quickly. Andrew had memorized the signs from watching it twice and began using it in context. Kathlena would use it when prompted but not usually take the initiative to use it in context at first. After a few more times of watching it she is now using the signs for more, please, and bath in context just to name a few. It is also great because the signs that are taught have to do with family life. It introduces the concept of family...Mommy, Daddy, baby, etc. I wished I had known about it sooner...it definitely would have been one that I would have packed with us for Russia to have them watch right away.
The second favorite one is Baby Da Vinci that explains eyes, ears, mouth, nose and teaches the familiar Head and Shoulders song that Andrew now sings along with the motions. There are several other DVD's in this series that are great because it is geared towards teaching a child who is in the pre-verbal stages of language. While it is different for a child who is going through language attrition of their birth language. It is normal when learning by immersion a new language and losing your native language when young to revert to non verbal communication before progressing to context verbal language. Simple sign language and music has been a great help for Andrew and Kathlena to pick up English quickly. Baby Da Vinci is actually in French, Spanish, and English. For those adopting from countries whose children speak French or Spanish it might be a good learning tool especially.
Of course just naming everything we see Andrew and Kathlena parrot it back to me and very quickly learn to pick up the names or words for things, then the context comes and last the grammar or usage. Andrew right now has moved to using words in context but the grammar is not there. He will say things like "You like the banana" instead of "I" although he is already catching on to this and has started to use " I" sometimes but not consistently yet. Also, he will say "I like the Babushka Nana" always using "the" whether an object or person. This will fade quickly as he will pick up usage from hearing us speak just as a young toddler does as they grow and hear more language.
An interesting article from Answers in Genesis on language, entitled Words are Us.
