Using Children's Shows to Teach Spanish: making the most of your spanish screen time

One of my favorite ways to teach and reinforce Spanish is to let my daughter watch television in Spanish. Not only does it make me feel less guilty about screen time, but it allows her to hear the vocabulary we work on in context and she gets to hear the language spoken by native speakers.

Now, I am by no means suggesting that letting your child watch television in Spanish is a substitute for you working with your child. I have seen several blogs suggesting that you can simply let your child watch television in Spanish and it will magically osmose into their little brains and they will become fluent. While that would be nice, in my experience your child will need to know at least a little bit of Spanish in order to get any benefit from watching television in Spanish.

How I Pick the Shows and Movies We Watch in Spanish

When I let my daughter watch television in Spanish, my goal is for her to recognize the Spanish vocabulary words she knows when they are being used in conversation. So when I am looking for shows, I focus on finding a show that I know will use the vocabulary she already knows. I also prefer shows that have the same songs or repeating themes in episodes because it is easier for kids to pick up on things when they are exposed to them repeatedly - bonus points for shows she is already familiar with in English.

The very first Spanish videos we watched were actually just cartoon videos set to songs and nursery rhymes. We focused on songs about colors, numbers, and shapes because that was the vocabulary my daughter knew. As she got older and knew more Spanish, we moved onto La Casa de Mickey - the Spanish equivalent of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The episodes are short and themed so there is a lot of repetition of vocabulary which is key for picking up new vocabulary words. It was also easy to jump into La Casa de Mickey because my daughter was already familiar with characters and the repeating elements of the show such as Oh, Toodles! and the hot dog song/dance (Qué Bien in the Spanish version). (Link to my video picks for early Spanish learners can be found here).

As your child gets more comfortable, you can start letting them watch their favorite movies in Spanish. I always pick movies my daughter has seen over and over again in English because she usually has all the songs and many of the lines memorized in English. This makes it easier for her to figure out words and phrases she may not know in Spanish. Netflix has a huge selection of children's movies available in Spanish (if a movie is available in Spanish you just click the conversation/subtitle bubble at the bottom right of the screen and change the audio to Spanish).

Above all else, you want to find something your child is interested in and actually enjoys watching because if they aren't into it in English they definitely will not want to watch it in Spanish.

Making the most of your Spanish Screen Time

As previously discussed, your child is not going to magically learn Spanish because you let them watch Spanish television shows. Like with anything else, you need to provide your child with some scaffolding. Even if you know very little Spanish, you can turn on the subtitles and improve your Spanish along with your child. When my daughter was first learning Spanish and we watched Spanish television, I was constantly pausing, interjecting, and asking questions to make sure she was actively engaged in the show. Now that she has a better grasp of the language I don't do this as much but some examples of how you can support and maximize your child's learning are as follows:

• "I just heard azul, you know that word! What does it mean?"

• "Hmm azul. I wonder what that means?"

• "Ooooh azul. I know that one, it means pink!" (In hopes they catch your mistake)

• "I head azul. I know what azul means. I know! I know!" (Works really well for competitive kids)

• "They just said azul pelota. We know what azul means but what do you think azul pelota means?" (If the show pairs a word they know with a word they don't - the easiest are usually noun/adjective combos - help them add a new vocab word to their arsenal using the word they already know! If they don't get it right away, you can support them with things like "Mickey is holding an azul pelota. What is an azul pelota?)

My best advice is to find what motivates or works for your child. My daughter loves to be right and especially loves correcting me and my husband when we are wrong. So, my go to when we're working on Spanish is to purposely defining a Spanish word wrong - i.e. "Elephante, I know that word! It means bird!" The one thing that all children have in common is they love to be praised and told how smart they are. So, make sure to lay it on thick when your child recognizes a word or picks up a new vocab word.

Finding Cartoons and Other Children's Shows in Spanish

There are so many streaming services out there but, if possible, I always try to find our Spanish shows on YouTube and stream them on a computer. This is because you can change the video speed to 75% which is a game-changer. Since Spanish is a language that is spoken relatively fast, slowing a show down to 75% speed makes a huge difference in hearing enunciation and picking up new words. Unfortunately, the quality of a lot of the shows on YouTube aren't the best so below are some other options:

(1) Netflix:

Did you know there are TONS of shows available in Spanish on Netflix? All you have to do is click the subtitle/conversation bubble in the bottom right of the screen and see if Spanish is listed under the audio options for that particular video.

(2) On Demand through your Cable Subscription

If you have a cable subscription, check your cable providers free On Demand options. We have Xfinity and there is a Spanish section with an "Infantiles" subsection full of free children's shows and movies in Spanish.

(3) Amazon Prime

If you have a prime membership, go to your prime video section and search "español prime" then click "included with prime" on the bar below the search bar. You can further narrow your search by selecting "Kids & Family" on the menu bar on the left hand side of the screen.

(4) Nick Jr. Latin America linked here

Not all Nick Jr. shows are available in Spanish, but there is a good selection of full episodes of certain shows such as Paw Patrol, Sparkle and Shine, and Dora. There is a larger selection of video shorts and songs. This is a great option for younger children.

(5) PBS Kids

PBS Kids has several Daniel Tiger episodes in Spanish. The only way I have been able to access them is through a google search of "PBS Kids Daniel Tiger Español" which will link you to episodes on the PBS Kids website. Also on the PBS Kids website is a show called Oh Noah! which is a bilingual English/Spanish show about a boy named Noah who goes to visit his grandmother who lives in a Spanish speaking community and his adventures as he tries to communicate with people in the community.

Please comment if you know of any others that you use!