Bi-lingual, am I doing this right?

[MoonMum]

Hope I am posting this in he right forum.
At home and with friends we speak English, live in a Spanish speaking country since a few months. I was born and raised in Germany.
Our LO is now almost 5 months. I talk to him in German during the day when we are together, just baby and me. When my husband is there I sometimes speak German to the LO and sometimes English, just because it happens naturally like that. (I do not even attempt to speak Spanish to him because as of now my Spanish is very bad. I think he'll pick that up eventually by himself.) Am I confusing the babe speaking in two languages to him? Is there danger that he'll mix them up or do they sort it usually naturally out the right way?

[YvonneC-M]

Keep doing what you're doing! Learning more than one language does not at all confuse an infant or small child. I was raised bilingually in Spanish and English, and as far back as I can remember, I always understood that they were two separate languages and that my grandmother spoke only Spanish, our neighbors spoke only English, and that my parents and siblings spoke both. It was always very clear to me.

In fact, studies show that exposure to multiple languages enhances a child's mental development. Be aware, however, that children who are learning more than one language will usually begin speaking a little later than children who are learning only one language--this is simply because they have more information to process. As soon as they start speaking, they immediately catch up.

By all means take advantage of the fact that your son is at an age where he's primed to learn language, and he has an exceptional opportunity to learn three! Speaking many languages has many advantages and no disadvantages whatsoever.

My husband and I are also trying to raise a trilingual baby. I speak to my daughter in Spanish as much as I can, and my mother speaks to her in Spanish exclusively. My husband and mother-in-law speak to her in their native language, Setswana, when I'm not around, and we all speak to her in English when we're together.

[Roar]

We were a two language home and I read the research on this years ago and the short answer is that it'll be fine. Some people divide up the household with one parent speaking one language and one another, but that's not the only way to approach it. There is some evidence kids in bilingual homes may begin to speak a tiny bit later, but ultimately may be more verbally strong and cognitively flexible. Don't worry about trying to push a specific language learning agenda, just continue to speak in whatever way is comfortable for you.

[sarahdavida]

I agree with the PPs. What you´re doing sounds great! I´m from the USA, living in Lima, Peru with my DH, who is Peruvian. DS, who is now 3, is stronger with English right now, mainly because in the first years, he has been mostly around me, but as he spends more time at preschool, I can notice his Spanish catching up - it´s amazing how quickly it does. Luckily, his school/teachers are also sensitive to this and have a lot of experience with many foreign families. We speak mostly English at home, since that was my and my husband´s main language together and I am a recent Spanish speaker. But we also have a Spanish speaking nanny, so obviously, he gets Spanish there, as well.

Sometimes, if my son starts speaking to me in Spanish, I will answer in Spanish if I am comfortable, but I use English with him 95% of the time, unless a Spanish speaker is present. I try not to force anything one way or another and try to be relaxed and natural about it.

We know that, if we continue to live here, we will have to be more conscious about reinforcing/maintaining the English language development (particularly spelling, grammar and reading) at home, since he will not be getting that in school.

Either way, is is absolutely fascinating and exciting to see how his bilingualism develops...you will see as your LO becomes more and more verbal - it is really special!

[YvonneC-M]

I absolutely agree that you should do whatever feels natural to you. BTW, if you're interested in knowing more about the question of whether multilingual children speak later than monolingual children, look up the thread titled "do bilingual children really speak late?" Apparently, there are a lot of different opinions on this matter.

[mom2ponygirl]

My friend's children are bilingual and were raised from babies in a bilingual home. It was not an issue and both children were very verbal from an early age in both languages. However, she did make a point of teaching them to read first in English as it is the more difficult language. (They are bilingual English/Spanish)

[Agamemnonsmom]

Keep it up

My son is 5 now. My husband is greek. My in-laws speak only Greek to him (they know Greek and English). He absolutely knows when to speak Greek and when to speak English. When he was younger, he may have gotten confused and started speaking Greek to me but quickly changed to English once he realized. Speak to him in as many languages as you know. In the end, it will all work out. It amazes me how he can switch languages and have the proper Greek accent when he speaks Greek!