Spanish class keeps niños moving in Dedham

After toy manzanas are handed out and an initial song sung, lead instructor Jouveth Shortell explains to the families gathered for a demo class of ABC Spanish in Motion that her program follows Total Physical Response.

“Everything we do is through movement,” she says, holding a little boy’s hands up in the air to demonstrate “arriba.” For “grande,” she spreads her arms wide. For “triste,” she pretends cries, as if she is a distraught opera character, and the students mimic her.

So begins a quick-moving Spanish class for toddlers and other young children, one that focuses heavily on music, with lots of singing in short spurts and hand clapping. Shortell says many words in a lilting, singsong voice, speaking almost completely in Spanish. Most of the children don’t speak the language, but they are immersed in it.

“It’s the only way you can really engage children,” Shortell says of Total Physical Response. “They feel that they’re just playing.”

She says children listen and comprehend language first, not producing sounds; the idea is those will come later. Some youngsters take a few classes, and others a year, before they start saying Spanish words. Or some kids might not “show off” in class, but will speak at home.

Shortell is also the director and owner of ABC Spanish in Motion, a program for children between 6 months and 6 years, that exposes them to the language and to different cultural elements from across Latin America. Spanish in Motion holds classes around the Boston area, including at the Parkway Preschool Center on Spring Street in West Roxbury; its added offerings at Discover Music & Art in Dedham Square over the summer.

Five boys and four girls, accompanied by parents and caregivers, have come to Dedham Music & Art for the demonstration, taught by Venezuelan native Shortell and Monica Correia of Colombia. The most advanced student is Sophia Levering of Westwood, almost 5, who has been in Spanish in Motion for a year with her brother Ben, who is almost two.

When Shortell asks “¿Cómo estás?,” Sophia replies “Muy bien.” During a section on “calabazas,” Sophia uses a Spanish adjective to explain how one of the pumpkins is angry.

Her mom, Jennifer Levering, says that Sophia fills in the blanks of songs at home, where she and Ben listen to CDs from 1-2-3 Spanish Together, the music used by Spanish in Motion.

“She’s answering the emotions of the pumpkin, and that’s just out of listening to it at home,” Levering says of her daughter. “So it’s just a really neat program. They really like it.”

“I don’t speak (Spanish),” she adds. “It’s a way for both of them to have fun in the class, and then retain it by practicing it with me with the CDs.”

“I love the class,” Sophia says simply.

It is a high-energy class, even if the kids’ attention wanders, as preschoolers are wont to do. But when Shortell says “limpia,” the kids know to return their musical instruments to a blue basket, or clean up.

After everyone counts up to five calabazas, they bounce the pumpkins off a tarp. Six kids then sit on the tarp as the adults pull them round and round, saying “Vamos, vamos, vamos en la tren” – taking them, rhetorically, to Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Finally they arrive in Dedham, where it is “otoño,” or autumn. Shortell tosses ojas (leaves) in the air that fall on and around the children.

A bit later she holds a green basket with a “sorpresa” within. She shakes it and asks if ojas or calabazas are inside, before Sophia correctly guesses the answer: manzanas, or apples.

Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.