Tips For Bilingual Babies Just Learning To Speak?

[Putting.on.my.fancy.shoes]

We arrived in BA a week ago and are settling in nicely with an 8 month old. I've read through quite a few threads regarding bilingual kids, but wondered if people had any suggestions for little ones who are right on the cusp of learning to talk? For those raising bilingual babies – did you speak to them in both English & Spanish? Did you repeat words in both languages? For the picture board books – did you read in English and Spanish?

As a note, my husband and I are from NYC and are native English speakers. My Spanish is not great and is very basic, but I am taking intensive classes and am learning quickly. I’d love for my daughter to embrace both languages, but do not want it to be too overwhelming for her.

Would love any suggestions, tips, advice and any helpful hints for babies of that age.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

We arrived in BA a week ago and are settling in nicely with an 8 month old. I've read through quite a few threads regarding bilingual kids, but wondered if people had any suggestions for little ones who are right on the cusp of learning to talk? For those raising bilingual babies – did you speak to them in both English & Spanish? Did you repeat words in both languages? For the picture board books – did you read in English and Spanish?

As a note, my husband and I are from NYC and are native English speakers. My Spanish is not great and is very basic, but I am taking intensive classes and am learning quickly. I’d love for my daughter to embrace both languages, but do not want it to be too overwhelming for her.

Would love any suggestions, tips, advice and any helpful hints for babies of that age.

Many thanks in advance.

When my daughter was a small child, she switched effortlessly from one language to the other (her mother is a native Spanish speaker, but we generally speak English at home in California). With her Argentine cousins, it was something she picked from one day to the next. I would say it's more important for your kid to have Spanish-speaking playmates so she will pick up a native speaker's accent. I don't think there's a lot you can do at eight months.

 

[thorsten]

When I was working in the US, a colleague had 3 little boys who at the beginning didn't speak a word English. You will be amazed how fast little kids pick up a language just by playing with native speaking kids. I guess if your little one goes to a kindergarden/pre school with locals, you won't need a lot of additional teaching.

 

[easyliving]

If your native language is English, speak to your children in English. They will hear plenty of Spanish around. Make sure native spanish speakers only speak in spanish with them. Don't be alarmed if their language skills are a bit retarded. This is normal and when they start speaking they will be proficient in both. Children will not be confused by hearing two languages and anyone who says this has no experience with bilingual children or any of the research on the subject.

 

[fifs2]

I was advised by our paediatrician to only speak in our native language to our 2 (then ) babies. As easyliving says it is not at all harmful for them to be raised bi-lingual but if your Spanish is poor you will teach bad habits. We sent ours to a Spanish only kindergarten. As they had Swedish and English at home and Spanish at kinder they didn't really speak properly till 2 which is absolutely normal. When they do speak they start mixing languages but very soon they were able to direct the correct language to the correct speaker. The best thing you can do for your baby is find a Spanish only speaking environment where you both can learn the language as you will only serve to frustrate your toddler by not understanding their mangled Spanish requests (mama can I have un chupetin?) Soon after you will start speaking baby Spanglish at home with your husband as if it's perfectly normal. Ours excel in both Spanish and English subjects at school(proudmummy sorry). Best of luck with maximising this fabulous opportunity for your child.

 

[camel]

My Spanish is not great and is very basic, but I am taking intensive classes and am learning quickly.

Can you say which intensive classes you're taking? I'm trying different places in BA and online (two commercial schools, a UBA course, private tutor, Verbling, self-study), and I like to hear what is working for other people.

 

[Patagone]

+1 for speaking in your mother tongue only. I am Dutch, my wife is Argentinean and we try to be consistent in speaking our own language to our baby and he understands both. Sometimes he mixes them up, but in general is is amazing to see how easy it is. He even picks up quite a bit of English from our own conversations as well as from songs etc.

Don't try to teach him Spanish yourself. My Spanish would not be good enough and I even decided against teaching my son English myself, even though I am fluent. It s very hard for a baby to get rid of bad pronunciation later (my wife cannot pronouce certain Dutch sounds, and my son copies her if she tries).

It's a lot of fun though and your kid will thank you later, in several languages

 

[glasgowjohn]

I speak to our son Matteo in English and I am convinced he will have an accent like Sean Connery…

My wife speaks to him in Spanish

We try and keep it that way but sometimes I lapse into Spanish and the good lady lapses into English.

Matteo spends half the day in kindergarten where he only listens and speaks Spanish.

When he watches TV , all his cartoons are in Englsih

Matteo is now 2 and a half and is only starting to sopeak Spanish fluently , he only speaks English now and again but understands everything .

Bilingual children speak later than monolingual children and this is normal.

Keep trying – young kids soak everything up and they will learn Spanish very quickly at school or playing with friends They will end up teaching you !

 

[syngirl]

Bear in mind that everything I say is from a very limited case study of ONE. So what goes on with our child is not necessarily true of every child whatsoever.

I disagree with the one parent-one language philosophy in cases where both parents have a high level of mastery of the other tongue; in these situations the one parent one language just isn't realistic to how life is lived. In a home where both parents speak the other language life tends to be a constant rhythm of switching back and forth from one language to another. Restricting a parent to only speaking one language to their child isn't realistic to most social situations, and frankly can come off as downright rude when in social situations. My husband is the only one in his family that speaks english, therefore when we are with any of his family we speak spanish only, except for maybe the occasional aside to my son (usually for correcting bad behaviour!). I would feel odd and rude in front of them to continue speaking in english to my son when no one else can understand. Maybe when my son gets older and I see him preferring spanish over english I will change my mind, but for now I feel flexibility of language is allowing him to grow his vocabulary and make language associations that become instinctive and also relative, rather than two distinctive language bodies.

What I do believe facilitates bilingualism is making sure the B language (the minority language in the household) becomes a language of NEED -- ie a necessity in order to communicate. Sending a toddler to two 30 min classes of spanish a week when the family only speak english at home and only hang out with english speaking children will not result in a high level of spanish acquirement. However if that same child goes to a spanish playgroup 5 days a week, preferably without their english speaking parents, then spanish will become a language of need and they will start picking it up rapidly.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

I speak only English to our kids. My wife speaks only Portuguese. They get spanish in school and with playmates. Started when they were 1 and 5. They are now 9 and 14. They are tri-lingual fluent with Spanish being the stronger of the languages. That worked for us.