bilingual home

[Ajsmommy52206]

hi everyone! I am new to the group and have a question. My husband just speaks spanish, and i speak both english and spanish. My son is 14 months old and so far says, aya, mama, dada, and ball.  Im wondering of that is ok for a 14 month old or if a child that is raised bilingual will develop speech a little slower b/c he has a 2 vocabs to learn...?

[lapayasa]

When I discussed the same issue with my peds dr he told me to pick the Spanish first since children pick up the foreign language quicker than wait sometime and introduce the english. I would work with him right now with just the spanish because you might confuse him.

[Gina_Ballerina]

I don't think so.

[savvymama]

Hi,

I'm always fascinated with questions about raising chidren bilingual. I was raised in France, from the age of 10, so I had to "learn" my second language. (Then added a third, a fourth,...) But I've raised my children on the Texas/Mexico border, where most kids do grow up bilingual. Foreign language is my passion, and I personally believe that raising your child to be multilingual and multicultural is just about the greatest gift you can give them for life.

I belong to another group, Foreign moms, and a lot of the same questions come up. Here are a couple of links to posts that might give helpful answers to your questions (I think you have to copy/paste the links.):

http://www.cafemom.com/group/10504/boards/read.php?post_id=654543

http://www.cafemom.com/group/10504/boards/read.php?post_id=587919

hope this is helpful.
bon courage!
Pat

[Mami_Yem]

 Hola payasa
Que tal?
My son is 6months ols and we speak english and spanish to him. I think they can learn both at the same time. My sons dad speaks only spanish. I learned the basics of spanish in school and then really got to learning it when we started to date.I dont know where in the world you guys are but in utah where i am I know lots of other bilingual familys. My sons doc basically said that in order for children to  have language we have to talk to them so i make it a poin to have conversations with my son even though he only babbles for now. my friend has a 2 yr old boy and he speaks both... he makes up sentences of english and spanish words but when they start school its english all the way so its important (in my oppinion) to encourage spanish in the home. Also i know of some kids here who speak english with no problem b/c of school and all but they have parents who speak no english...kids are smart we just have to encourage and talk to them.  y payasa, do your kids prefer one language over the other? where do you guys live? how did you learn spanish?

[Ajsmommy52206]

payasa huh!? LOL  No my son seems to be saying both so far little by little... ive been speaking spanish for a few yrs now. I took it in HS, i lived in peru for 3 months and my husband only speaks spanish. we live in mass :)

[lapayasa]

Everyone likes payasa!! LOL It is a nickname long story. I lved in mexico for almost a year. But, My kids speak decent english now.. They are both in school and now it is just me and the baby./. Good luck

Quoting Ajsmommy52206:

payasa huh!? LOL  No my son seems to be saying both so far little by little... ive been speaking spanish for a few yrs now. I took it in HS, i lived in peru for 3 months and my husband only speaks spanish. we live in mass :)

[shakesrear]

I've read about the delay in language acquisition from bilingualism, and there isn't any! My daughter has been raised bilingual and she is quite advanced in speech for a 2 1/2 year old. She still can't speak much English, but I think I'm going to start insisting that she talk in English with me. She's also advanced in many other aspects, so I think the bilingualism hasn't had any effect on her.

[beebop104]

i have heard that raising a child to speak more than one laguage can delay their speach but i think that all children develop at a different pace and it really depends on the child...my niece is spoken to in both english and spanish, she is 2 years old and is very advanced for her age...she speaks mostly english with our family, although there are some words she prefers to say in spanish...at her daycare they speak primarily spanish and they're always telling my sister how well she does with speaking spanish to them...i wouldn't worry if i were you, it sounds like he's right on track

[Grant04]

Hi,
I have seen with my older one that she has taken a little longer time to open up to speak both language, but know at 3 she finally stopped being shy and started to open up and speak both languages.  She still can't tell who she speaks Icelandic to and who English.  But our son who is just over 1 years old he understand it both and he is much faster to try to talk both.  It might be because he have someone to talk to all the time and he really likes talking, lol where most people speak .  I'm starting to tell my daughter to say it in Icelandic and I will be more stricter to her when she has gotten full control over her understanding of language.  For some reason she also has started to talk Spanish, being around Hispanic kids and a neighborhood where Spanish is spoken around us all the time. For us it fin, the more language the better.  Specially because they have many cousins that are Spanish and Hispanic and speak both languages.

[spongelearners]

We have a 20 month old and he is not speaking much either. We are raising him bilingual (Spanish / Portuguese) therefore that might be the reason. It doesn't concern us since it will be the greatest gift we give to him.

Visit my website   http://www.spongelearners.com/   for great ideas and resources in Spanish.

Sandra