[kayabrink]

Ds is French and I'm Canadian, and we live 6 months in France, 6 in Canada every year. Several studies have shown that children raised as bilinguals spoke much later than monolingual children, however this is definitely not the case with my ds. I would like to hear about your toddlers' linguistic development. Early/late talker; one or both languages; larger vocab in one of the two languages, about how many words they know; and at what age they knew and used a word in both languages (e.g. dog and chien).
I am preparing grad work on bilingual babies/toddlers (I'm still in the VERY prelimiary stages) and I would really like some anecdotal evidence regarding this topic to help me form my ideas. I am also involved in studies pertaining to the differences in parenting styles and their implications on children's cognitive and linguistic development. So send in the stories, please!

 

[barista]

Hi

My DD is not bilingual, but a very good friend of mine is attempting to raise her 2-year-old DD to speak both French and English (she's Belgian), and it doesn't seem to be working at the moment. I can only imagine that it might be because, unlike your situation, her DD is not immersed in a French-speaking culture on a regular basis.....it's just her momma speaking to her in both French and English, but she is surrounded in everyday life by English.

Perhaps as she gets older it will become more productive? I should say that her DD seems to understand French nouns quite well, but makes no attempt to use them herself, and is pretty much speaking in English all the time.

 

[Cole]

The few families I know that do this only speak the language that is not the primary language of the country they currently live in at home. They figure that the kids will pick up more than enough of the counties language without speaking it in the home.

 

[stiles' mummy]

My ds (who turned 2 today

: ) is being raised in a bilingual household. We speak primarily English to him, but he is cared for 4 days of the week with my in-laws whilst we are at work and they speak nothing but Greek to him. In fact, we live around the block from them so we see them like everyday. So ds is exposed to Greek quite a bit. He was/is a late talker. Just started speaking words in the last couple of months. He is up to 65 words now and combing two words together. We think he was late in talking because of the two languages being used so much. His speech therapist suggested that dh and I ONLY speak English to him and my in-laws speak Greek to him. That way he would not be confused. He knows mommy and daddy speak English and Grandpa and Grandma speak Greek. He understands EVERYTHING in Greek and English. However, 85% of his words that he speaks are in English.

 

[sagira]

Bilingual here too. My husband speaks only English to ds (21 months) and I speak only Papiamento to him (Aruba's native language).

When he's three I'll start teaching him Spanish. I think it's going to be easy to speak and write Spanish with the Papiamento background (Papiamento is a combination of Portuguese, Dutch, English, Spanish and Indian. Papiamento is infinitely easier than Spanish, but it's a good foundation.

Ds is very vocal and speaks and understands both languages (but no sentences yet). He speaks about 40 words, maybe a bit more now.

It's very rewarding to see him speak and understand a language that only I speak around here!

 

[nonconformnmom]

We are raising our children bilingual. My husband speaks only Dutch to them and I and my oldest daughter speak only english to them. My husband is the full-time, stay at home caregiver so my children get a lot of Dutch during the day, and then primarily english the rest of the time (my husband speaks english to me so our household is primarily english, for now anyway

)

You asked:

Quote:

I would like to hear about your toddlers' linguistic development. Early/late talker; one or both languages; larger vocab in one of the two languages, about how many words they know; and at what age they knew and used a word in both languages

My 2.5 year old (born in Sept. 2002) has just begun what can only be described as a verbal explosion. Compared to other children her age, she was delayed in her speech development. She didn't say any words at all until 15 or 16 months old and she only spoke a dozen or so words for a long time. She is now talking up a storm - consistent with the research I had seen which said that, while their speech may be delayed, they will catch up by the time they are 3 years old. She is definitely in the process of 'catching up'.

I would say she knows equal number of words in both languages. She uses the english words a bit more than the dutch words - but that's probably because she speaks english to me so that's all I hear. There are some words that she will only say the dutch version, and I understand them because I'm learning right along with her. And there are some words that she only says in english - she won't say the dutch word. But the majority of words that she knows she can say in either/ both languages.

My blog has several entries about her language development, if you care to extract 'stories' from there. I would suggest you use the search feature on my blog on "dutch" and that should pull them all up for you. Good luck with your research.

 

[velveeta]

Really interesting experiences!

We are raising our son bilingual. My DH works at home, and is around DS (25 months) nearly as much as I am (I stay home with Daniel). DH speaks Afrikaans to Daniel about 85% of the time, and I do about, say, 50% of the time.

He began really talking just after his first birthday. Just single words then. Now, he says everything we say. He displays echolalia for nearly everything we say (repeating words and phrases), I believe to help him to absorb and assimilate the phrases.

And he can differentiate b/t the two languages. When I am on the phone (usually with my mother!), I speak English exclusively. Daniel says, "hello, Grandma!" And when DH calls his mother (and is speaking Afrikaans), Daniel says, "hello, Ouma!" And when I am recounting a day's events, I say to my DH, "I took Daniel to the butterfly house, where we saw birds and dragonflies." And then Daniel chimes in: "Skoenlappers! (butterflies) Voeltjies! (birds), Naaldekookers (dragonflies)."

His language (in an exchange with me) is largely echolalic, but he originates many, many phrases, too. I would estimate that 60% of what he says (descriptively, as requests and exclamations) is in English. We take a lot of video, so maybe I can figure out a more precise estimate from that.

Many linguists recommend that one parent speak exclusively one language and the other parent another so that the child associates the language with the parent. I do not believe this is necessary (children are so much smarter than we know!). I am also a linguist, and we have had a good experience with the setup that I describe above. DH and I mainly speak to each other in a mixture of English and Afrikaans (depending on how tired I am!). I prefer to speak English.

Ideally, the child should be exposed regularly to an immersive setup in the second language as regularly as possible before age three. We travel to South Africa every year (or have in-laws come here) for two or three months. We don't just do that for the language, though. We go to the dentist, and whatever else!

In my opinion, the child will relate very strongly to his mother's native tongue (generally irrespective of whether she is the primary caregiver!). Of course, around puberty, children acquire language more from than peers than from home. And this includes regionalisms, as well.

I can think of more notes, but I am still in pajamas and Daniel is running wild!

We also listen to Afrikaans music and watch musical DVDs a lot. I mean, A LOT.

Ooops.

Jean

 

[~Nikki~]

We're raising our children bilingual. Living in Canada's capital, there are plenty of opportunities to immerse them in both languages. I don't speak french very well, but DH and his family are French Canadian. Our 2 year old's first language is english, but she can say many french words and sentences, and understands most french (her grandparents only speak to her in french). She'll call a cat either a cat, kitty or minou, for example. Or she'll say "c'est un cup!", so she's a bit Fringlish, or Franglais, however you like to say it.

She's not delayed at all in english, aside from the bizarre mixing of the two languages in a single sentence that she'll sometimes do.

She'll be starting in a bilingual preschool (hopefully, if we can get her in) when I have to go back to work next summer.

 

[BabyBumblebee]

another canuck here (45 mins from Ottawa)!

Dh and I are UK emigrants, but we are both bilingual, and we are trying our very best to maintain a bilingual household here! We read books in English and French to dd, and listen to English and French cd's and dvd's. We are also really fortunate in that many of our closest friends are bilingual, so they also talk to dd in french. It remains to be seen what kind of crazy mid-Atlantic accent the poor girl ends up with though :LOL

Oh, I also speak Spanish, but have not added that into the mix...

 

[nonconformnmom]

Just to add, we do the OPOL method (one parent, one language). Our 2.5 year old can discriminate between when to use english and when to use Dutch. She has a little game she plays, sometimes with us, and oftentimes just to herself. She says, "Mama says 'tree', Papa says 'bom' " and will go through her dual vocabulary word by word. Or I will quiz her and say "Mama says pants, Papa says ....?" and she will fill in the word ('broek'). She loves that game!

 

[ChasingPeace]

My ds is 16 months old and is being raised in a semi-bilingual home. I speak only English (or sometimes very, very bad Arabic to non-English-speaking inlaws), my MIL lives with us 6 months of the year and speaks only Arabic, and my dh speaks both. So far it hasn't been a problem. Ds seems to understand English better than Arabic, but he does understand some Arabic. He says some words in English, some words in Arabic, and some words he mixes the 2 and creates his own hybrid words (for light he says "dight," the Arabic word for light being "dow'a").

 

[paxye]

Hi!

:
We are also raising our children bilingual...
Both Dh and I are French Canadian living about an hour out of Monteal in a very french little Quebec city...
I however was raised in BC and learned English very early on and did all my schooling in English and I feel as comfortable speaking and writing in English as I do in French and even more so...
Anyways... ds (who is almost 3 ) was a late speaker though and had his language boom hit a bit later then others around us... However, he has not only caught up but speaks both languages (though he still does have more English then French)
The way we do it is that I speak in English all the time to the kids, they also watch TV in English (when they watch)... DH, Family, Friends and entourage are all French so they will have their fair share of exposure to French...

 

[chiedza]

I spoke only Swahili to my DS from age 16 -34 months. He hears English everywhere else, including nursery school and from his dad.

He'll be 3 next month, and I just recently switched to mostly English because I noticed I was having trouble getting my thoughts out in Swahili when it came to discipline issues and answering his endless "Why?" I'm thinking of going back to Swahili, though, but letting myself be less strict about it.

DS started talking a lot around age 18 months and used both English and Swahili. Now he uses mostly English but some Swahili words. And he mixes Swahili words with English grammar a lot. He is more verbal than other kids his age, but sometimes -- less and less -- other people don't understand him because he mixes in Swahili vocabulary.

 

[etoilech]

We are raising our son in a multilingual household. I speak French, English, and more and more German. DH speaks German, French, English, Italian, and some Spanish. I speak English and some French to DS and DH speaks German and some French to him. So far Erik is stonger in English, but also very proficent in German with a smattering of French. Anyway, he was lagging in language, but is now exploding as another poster said. :LOL

Olivia

 

[meemee]

hi,

i was raised in a country where every one is bi or mulitlingual. i find no difference in learning how to talk between there or here. they have late talkers there as well as early talkers. so from my experience if ur child is going to be a late talker talking to him in mono or multilanguage is not going to make any difference. developmentally children explode at 18 months and then at 2 years with suddenly many words. my dd hit the 18 month explosion but just continued gaining a lot. at 33 months she is v. verbal. and she know 3 languages well and a smattering of 3 others. yes she does mix languages but she talks to the person in the language they speak to her. for instance seh wont talk to me in japanese or spanish but she had and sometimes now has a few favourite words that she will use with anyone. so instead of saying delicious or yummy she will say oishi in japanese.

 

[Hollycrand]

We are raising dd to be multi-lingual. I speak English (my mother tongue), dh speaks French (his mother tongue) to her and we live in Germany. So far, she speaks all three without any problems, and is even starting to 'change' the language when she's talking to papa or to mama. We are using the 'one parent - one language' method.
Many books and people said that she would start talking later, but she talks up a storm! She talks to other children, to adults, to dogs and cats, to her dolls...

 

[kayabrink]

I would like to thank you all for your replies. I still haven't organized my thoughts as clearly as I would like to.
I'm sort of wondering though, in countries where multilingualism is the norm, being raised bilingual probably has less effect than in countries where monolingualism is the norm. In bilingual countries, children are not exposed to just one person who speaks French, with everyone else speaking English. Rather, EVERYONE (almost) will speak both languages. Also, media will be in both languages (TV but also books, newspapers, radio). So in a multilingual country, children theoretically have a greater chance of being equally exposed to both languages, and thus are more likely to be balanced bilinguals. This might make them have less of a delay than in monolingual countries.
Sorry just sort of thinking aloud...
As many of you mentionned, yes, the initial delay often disappears as children age. In fact; bilingual children generally surpass their peers not only in linguistic aptitude but also in many other cognitive domains such as controlled thought processes, ignoring irrelevant stimuli in their environment, and accessing and using higher-order rules (e.g. they're better at complex sorting tasks).
Sorry for the novel just sort of thinking aloud here. Thank you all once again

 

[FitMama]

DH speaks mostly Spanish to DS (I have to remind him constantly to do it though...I'm a teacher so there ya go). I speak to him in English, but will supplement with Spanish vocabulary if I happen to know the word.

My MIL watches DS 2 days a week and speaks ONLY Spanish to him. I think he has grown most from that experience, since there is no English interference in that setting.

DS seems to use both words for things if we really reinforce it, otherwise he defaults to English. Right now, shoes are shoes, but at grandma's they are zapatitos. Watermelon is both watermelon and sandia, one said right after the other. (I'm sorry if those Spanish words are spelled incorrectly!)

 

[elsanne]

Fitmama--you spelled those perfectly write!!!

Sorry I just had to pun there. But you did spell them perfectly.

We're Spanish/English here too--I'm a transplanted gringa in Mexico and I am going all English, or mostly, and the language of our home is Spanish (DH is Mexican and I speak fluently). I did not mean for that to sound hoity toity. :LOL Anyway, she's just over a year, and it's been mostly me for a while, but her first words are both--agua, hello, etc....

It's fun to do this! What a major benefit for our kids in today's world!!

 

[boricuaqueen327]

We have been raising dd bilingual as well. my fmaily and I are Puerto Rican and we are all fluent in english and spanish. She has been hearing both languages since birth. No one uses one language only (for example I dont use only spanish and my husband only english) and she hears both at church too since we rotate back and forth between and english speaking church and a spanish one. She has been saying words since she was around 9 months and she can understand both languages. For example, I can tell her to wash her hands or "lavate las manos" and she'll do it. She knows what a dog or perro is and she can find her nose/nariz. eyes/ojos, mouth/boca etc. I think ti's working out great. She is speaking mroe and more everyday and uses both languages.