s/o words, bilingual families come in

pb_bride · January 2014

If you are a bilingual (or trilingual) family, what % of the time does LO hear English vs another language?

How many words does your LO speak? In which language (or both)?

DS has zero words. He is one of the youngest here (he turns 14m next wk) and we are a bilingual family. He hears English about 35% of the time. I have a feeling he will have some speech delay, possibly due to the bilingualism. He didn't start babbling (ie, no consonants at all) until he was 10m. I am not worried...yet. He is on the cusp of walking right now, so I think language is taking a back seat. Just curious what other bilingual babies are doing here.

DS's receptive language seems to be on track... though I suppose it is harder to define than expressive language.

Dana327 · January 2014

We speak to him 90-95% in Serbian but when he watches TV its in English and I speak to others in English. He says one word in Serbian other than mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, aunt and uncle. The only English word he says is bye and sometimes hi.

hilsy85 · January 2014

DH speaks to LO in Russian probably about 40% of the time...we THINK he has one Russian word, but I'm not really sure since I don't speak russian. It hasn't affected his ability to speak in english, probably because I"m with him and speaking english all day.

Sillygirl85 · January 2014

dotmbc said:

We aren't bilingual, but I've been reading a lot about it lately (ref. second language post) and lots of people seem to agree that sometimes bilingual kids are a little bit behind in the beginning, but they catch up quick and it doesn't result in any real delay in the long run.

Also not bilingual, but have experience in teaching foreign language and working with English Language Learners. In the process of learning a language there are stages. The first is typically known as the silent stage. This is the stage in which the child is listening to the language and learning the vocabulary and grammar patterns. The next stage is when the child begins to make attempts to communicate in the language. As dotmbc said the silent stage can last longer for a bilingual child as they are trying to internalize two languages. That means two sets of vocabulary, two sets of grammar patterns and all the other nuances that go with learning a language.

I would not at this point assume that your child has a speech delay. And even if he did it would have nothing to do with being bilingual.

Sillygirl85 · January 2014

@Dana327 I am wondering if you are familiar with what ELL services (English Language Learner) will be available for your son when he starts school?

I work for a school system that has a large ELL population. When we have students enter whose primary language is not English they register through what we call the Multi-Cultural Center. They then do evaluations to determine whether or not the student needs ELL support.

I'm really just curious to see how other areas of the country are addressing the language differences in schools.

Dana327 · January 2014

Sillygirl85 said:

@Dana327 I am wondering if you are familiar with what ELL services (English Language Learner) will be available for your son when he starts school?

I work for a school system that has a large ELL population. When we have students enter whose primary language is not English they register through what we call the Multi-Cultural Center. They then do evaluations to determine whether or not the student needs ELL support.

I'm really just curious to see how other areas of the country are addressing the language differences in schools.

I was older but I was in an ESL class when I started school in the US. With DS I think there are special classrooms for ESL kids even at such a young age, I will look into it more closer to when he is 3/4. My cousin bareley spoke any English when she started pre-K some years ago and she was on the regular class. She did great and spoke it fluently by the time the year was over.

LorMor · January 2014

I studied Linguistics, and I wish we could be a bilingual family. There are so many advantages. Yes, there is likely to be a delay (but not necessarily) but once your bilingual LO catches up, there will be no stopping him/her. So don't worry. And not having words yet is certainly not a delay.

pb_bride · January 2014

hilsy85 said:

DH speaks to LO in Russian probably about 40% of the time...we THINK he has one Russian word, but I'm not really sure since I don't speak russian. It hasn't affected his ability to speak in english, probably because I"m with him and speaking english all day.

@hilsy85, just to clarify, do you mean that when your DH speaks to your DS, he uses Russian 40% and English 60%? Or did you mean that your LO is exposed to Russian 40% of the time when you & YH speaks to him?

hilsy85 · January 2014

pb_bride said:

hilsy85 said:

DH speaks to LO in Russian probably about 40% of the time...we THINK he has one Russian word, but I'm not really sure since I don't speak russian. It hasn't affected his ability to speak in english, probably because I"m with him and speaking english all day.

@hilsy85, just to clarify, do you mean that when your DH speaks to your DS, he uses Russian 40% and English 60%? Or did you mean that your LO is exposed to Russian 40% of the time when you & YH speaks to him?

Dh speaks to him in Russian 40 percent and English 60 percent. I speak english 100 percent

JoNi2010 · January 2014

Dana327 said:

Sillygirl85 said:

@Dana327 I am wondering if you are familiar with what ELL services (English Language Learner) will be available for your son when he starts school?

I work for a school system that has a large ELL population. When we have students enter whose primary language is not English they register through what we call the Multi-Cultural Center. They then do evaluations to determine whether or not the student needs ELL support.

I'm really just curious to see how other areas of the country are addressing the language differences in schools.

I was older but I was in an ESL class when I started school in the US. With DS I think there are special classrooms for ESL kids even at such a young age, I will look into it more closer to when he is 3/4. My cousin bareley spoke any English when she started pre-K some years ago and she was on the regular class. She did great and spoke it fluently by the time the year was over.

Butting in...

I was also in ESL program when I started school at 5 in the US. I grew up bilingual and English was my third language. I think because I started so young, I was out of ESL within 1-2 years.

And to OP, I speak 60% Mandarin, maybe 5% Taiwanese (it just naturally comes out sometimes!), and rest English. My parents are about the same when they are with him but DH and daycare are 100% English. His first words other than Mama and Dada are Mandarin so far. I hope to push more Mandarin on him now because English will be so easy for him to pick up.

And I've asked my pediatrician about the "delay" in speech - bilingual babies are slower in speaking generally but my pediatrician says the benefits greatly outweigh this initial delay. Honestly, once my LO figured out 1-2 words, everything has started to flood in!

Dana327 · January 2014

Yes I forgot to add I was out of ESL in less than two years and I started school here at 11.5years old.

s/o words, bilingual families come in

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