Teaching Italian to toddlers in the UK

Raising a bilingual child in the UK when one parent speaks Italian is both a privilege and a daily negotiation. English is everywhere — at nursery, in the park, on screens. Italian, unless actively maintained, can quietly fade into the background language: understood but not spoken, recognised but not used.

The challenge isn't whether a toddler can learn two languages — decades of research confirm they can, without confusion or delay. The challenge is finding enough Italian-language material that feels natural, not forced. Books, songs, and everyday objects that bring Italian into the child's world without turning every interaction into a lesson.

Start with objects, not grammar

Toddlers don't learn language through rules. They learn by pointing at things and hearing names. A spoon is a cucchiaio. A cat is a gatto. The connection between the word and the object is direct, physical, and immediate. This is why word books work so well in the early years — they give a parent and child a shared reference point, a page to return to, a ritual of naming.

For bilingual families, a word book that presents both languages side by side normalises the idea that everything has two names. Neither language is the translation of the other; both are simply there.

Italian children's books in the UK

Finding Italian children's books in the UK can be frustrating. High street bookshops rarely stock anything beyond English. Online retailers carry Italian imports, but they're often expensive with long delivery times, and they assume the child is growing up in Italy — the cultural references, the vocabulary choices, and the visual style all reflect an Italian context rather than a bilingual one.

What's missing is something designed for families like yours: living in the UK, speaking Italian at home, wanting a book that belongs in both worlds.

Words · Parole

We designed Words · Parole for exactly this situation. It's a board book with 48 words in English and Italian, illustrated in watercolour across six categories. It doesn't teach Italian as a foreign language — it presents it as a native one, alongside English, with equal weight and equal beauty. Made in London, for bilingual families everywhere.