With three small children, her oldest a toddler, Traci Eshelman Ramey searched the city for an early-education foreign language program.

Realizing the importance of learning a second language, this former global sales manager found nothing.

Today, Ms. Eshelman Ramey has her own foreign language school, Little Linguists, Inc., that provides foreign language instruction to more than 300 Pittsburgh area youth.

The company had centers in Murrysville and Cranberry, and last month officially opened locations in Squirrel Hill and Brookline. It offers classes in Spanish, French, German, Latin, Italian and Chinese, and will add Japanese in the fall.

"We need to prepare our children for the global community ... period," said Ms. Eshelman Ramey, who, along with her 20 instructors, is passionate about early instruction.

The concept for Little Linguists started 11 years ago when Ms. Eshelman Ramey was working, was expecting her first child and was traveling every three weeks to Latin America. She saw firsthand how knowing a second language can be helpful in a global society.

After leaving her job, and with an infant at home, she applied her background in linguistics and Spanish to tutoring and teaching after-school elementary programs.

"It was slow going at first because I had three kids in three years," she admits.

But her classes grew, and in 2004 she officially opened her first language center in Murrysville, offering classes in Spanish, French and Latin to preschoolers through fifth-graders.

Today, there also are individualized programs for semi-private groups, families and middle school students.

Her centers are bright, colorful and clean. But here, the calendars, weather charts and other labels hanging on the walls are not in English. The shelves are overloaded with popular children's games, such as Candyland and Uno, that are played only in different languages.

A small kitchen in the back is used for instruction on how to set a table, manners and cooking.

"Language is living, interacting, being in that language," said Ms. Eshelman Ramey.

More than 200 children's books in the languages she offers plus others -- including Hebrew, Arabic and Hawaiian -- fill a library area in another corner of the center.

Little Linguists instructors also provide on-site instruction to preschools in the area. Each week, Ms. Eshelman Ramey or one of her instructors teaches Spanish classes to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes at Calvary Lutheran Preschool/Kindergarten in Murrysville.

Using props as puppets and clothing, she engages the children, speaking almost completely in Spanish. Preschool teacher Lori Gulaskey said the youngsters are excited and familiar with several Spanish words from watching children's programs such as "Dora the Explorer."

"It's kind of fun to see how well the kids pick it up. They'll remember things a lot faster than we [adults] will," Ms. Gulaskey said.

Half of the Little Linguists instructors are natives of the countries whose language they teach. Others are former teachers or graduate students from local universities.

Myriam Gau, a French instructor and native of France, also is a team member and language trainer at the immersion program for teachers at the University of Pittsburgh's European Union Center of Excellence and European Studies Center.

She became involved with Little Linguists when she was looking for a program for her twin daughters, now in kindergarten.

"I thought if they were immersed with a group of kids, they would see that other kids are learning [a new language] too, and it's not just our family," she said.

According to Mary Lynn Redmond, director of foreign language education at Wake Forest University, young children pick up a foreign language easier than older children and adults.

"[Children in] elementary grades and preschool are very much in development stages. Their linguistic, cognition and emotional ability changes over time," she said, emphasizing the teaching approach is more "playful" and conversational.

Younger children, explained Ms. Redmond, are also more accepting of another language's different grammatical rules, like those associated with conjugating verbs and masculine and feminine articles for nouns.

"We have second- and third-graders who know how to conjugate verbs and they just accept it. Eighth-graders, on the other hand, want to analyze the reasons why. There is less spontaneity," said Ms. Eshelman Ramey.

"By middle school, they have already become ethnocentric," she said.

Also, before a child reaches puberty, he is more likely to learn a language without having the accent of his native tongue.

But the trend today is to eliminate elementary school foreign language programs, explained Ms. Eshelman Ramey. The Hempfield Area School District recently got rid of a program it had for 10 years, and Franklin Regional abolished its third-, fourth- and fifth-grade programs six years ago.

To fill the gap, Little Linguists instructors provide after-school programs on site through school parent teacher organizations in six districts in the Pittsburgh region.

"The parents want it because they are working at these global companies, global banks, global manufacturing firms," she said.

Ms. Eshelman Ramey finds it unfortunate that there is no mandate in Pennsylvania requiring foreign language instruction for graduation.

According to Greg Christie, press aide at the state Department of Education, foreign language instruction is a district-by-district issue and most, if not all, of the state's 501 districts offer foreign language in some part of their curriculum.

The librarian at Franklin Regional's Heritage Elementary School, Wade Burtch, said the classes are providing a positive association with understanding a world language. He has witnessed several of the classes that are held in the library.

"The kids are really engaged. It's high energy and it looks like a lot of fun," he said, adding that throughout the day, he hears students repeating what they've learned.

"Every once in a while, I'll say something to them in Spanish and they'll always respond."

Mrs. Ramey also offers individualized instruction to several companies, many of which have large contracts overseas.

"Many of these companies that I deal with have told me that if they look at a resume and another language isn't on there -- doesn't matter what language -- they won't even look at you."