Bilingualism and first words

[Deb16]

Hi,

My daughter is turning 7 months in two days and she hasn't pronounced a word as of yet. She babbles a lot and although she did say "popo" a few weeks ago, it wasn't conscious and she didn't realize it.
She usually loves repeating new sound she makes and I can tell she is dying to be able to communicate.

Do you have any tips on how to stimulate her speech more? And did you feel that your chil/ren started speaking later because of their bilingualism?

Thank you.
Deb

[lois1]

I had the same "concern" about potentially delayed speech although I knew the overall benefit of bilingualism far outweighed any perceived disadvantage. A paediatrician told my husband & I to wear bright red lipstick as we over-enunciated each word we spoke... needless to say we didn't & I don't think it's has caused any delay (& minimised my child's mental trauma). I think simply speaking to your child & making eye contact is about the most effective speech stimulant you can find.. when I'm tired & don't want to chatter away or read stories anymore, an appropriate children's music/ singalong CD goes on

In my work I see plenty monolingual children who being to speak between the ages of 12 &24 months. Each child is so different & they will talk when they want to & realise the benefits (& not a minute before ).  Mine is definitely not an early talker but expecting him to be somewhat delayed I'm surprised at how much he is saying now... I'm sure every other bilingual parent on here will have a different story.

Our personal story is:
We speak English & Spanish with no English speaking friends nearby. My son's first words apart from Mama & Dada were agua, Didi (the name of the next door neighbour's dog in Panama) at about 16 months, oh & "la la" for la luz (the light). A couple of other sounds were in there as well but only I knew what he was referring to.

We've just been up in Canada for 5 weeks & spoke almost entirely English; he now clearly says please, cheese (we took lots of pictuers!), green, granda, man, duck, baby, plus maybe another 6 & attempts to repeat just about anything you ask him too. Something obviously clicked with him while he was up there. He hasn't attempted anything else in Spanish yet although through signs & following instructions it's clear he understands Spanish perfectly. It will come.

Do you sign with your daughter? That is an incredible gift to enable them to communicate when they are still preverbal. My little boy has about 80 signs & he surprises me every now & again with a sign I thought he wasn't picking up.

I tend to get carried away talking about my wonderful little boy but I would like to hear other parents' experiences as well. It's so wonderful to watch them learn but also have some "ammunition" to use against the naysayers.

[nic31600]

My daughter is bilingual. She learnt mummy and daddy around that age more or less and not much else really. She didn't talk much until around 17 months of age but I think it might have been due to lack of interaction with others. I live in France and people are often surprised at how well she speaks but since I'm a SAHM I've had plenty of time to teach her songs and vocabulary when going out and about. She is nearly 3 and oh how much I miss the days when she couldn't talk!!!! Now she is very advanced in speech and she drives me absolutely crazy and I wish she came with a mute button sometimes so I can get some decent sleep.I wouldn't be worrying.

[mybabyian]

It’s true that all kids develop speech at different times.  There is a huge range of normal.  But, from what I have read there are things you can do to help a baby learn to talk.  I have tried some of the ideas and it seems to be working. 

My son speaks and understands both English and Spanish.  He is 19 months.  His three first words that he started saying at about one year were “pato” (duck), “zapato” (shoe), and doggy.  It seems to be common that he starts  saying words that sounded similar at around the same time like “pato” and “zapato”.  For another example, he also learned “purple”, “bubble”, and “apple” together.  I just say that because I think it shows not that he learned the meaning of the words at the same time but that he learned how to move his mouth/tongue to pronounce them at the same time.  I actually have thought that having two languages has helped him speak earlier because he can choose the easier word to say.  Of course he mixes languages (“more agua”) but that is to be expected and kids learn to separate the languages in the end.

Many of the ideas for stimulating speech I read in the book NutureShock.  I think they are true not matter how many languages your child is learning.  They are:

Speak in motherese.  This is when parents speak slowly and vary the pitch of their voice.  It is not baby talk because the actual words you are using are the same; its a change in inflection and rhythm.  This is a natural thing for all parents but some do it more than others.  I have found that when I really exaggerate the pitch of my voice he learns those words faster. 

Use “motionese” Supposedly when you want to teach a baby a name for an object you hold the object and move it around, turning it and panning it at the same time that you use motherese to tell the baby the word.

Speak to your baby about what he is focused on.  If he is looking at and holding a spoon that is what you talk to him about.  Seems somewhat obvious but for example if your baby is playing with a spoon and says “ba ba ba” you might be tempted to say back “Bottle?  Are you saying bottle? Do you want your bottle?”

Respond to your babies attempts at speech.  When your baby makes a new sound repeat it back or touch her.  You can have a conversation where she babbles and you respond back like she is actually saying something.  This is highly reinforcing for the baby to talk more and the more practice she has with sounds the earlier she will learn to talk.
 
Don’t pressure.  Just like in early learning we don’t test, don’t ask your baby to say words back to you.

Give your baby a chance to respond.  Pause frequently in your speech and see if your baby will try to imitate you.

For long term vocabulary development, read lots of books and speak a lot to your child.  You can read  the book “Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children” which talks about a study they did where they counted the words spoken to young children and how this affected there vocabulary development.  The children who heard lots of language where far more advanced than the children who had limited language exposure.  The author of NutureShock tries to negate this study with the suggestion above to give your baby a chance to respond.  I don’t see why these have to be in conflict.  You can still talk a lot to your child and let them respond to you. 

So basically, yes there is a wide variation in how and when children develop speech.  This goes for monolingual children and multilingual children.  But, there are some things you can do to help.  They seem to work in our case. Good luck!  It is such a joy to see them start to express themselves!

 

[A_BC]

Hi, i just wanted to share how my toddler is learning to speaker ina multilingual environment. He  is 19 m, signs, speaks Arabic, English & French and says only few words in 3 additional languages (Spanish, German and Mandarin) although he's been exposed to all of them from the start. He picked up the first three better because we fluently speak them at home. He will only say words in the secondary languages when we read books or watch DVDs.  But no worries here,at least I know he is learning something even if his vocabulary is no that rich.

What I want to say is just do your best (motherese, reading books, early learning programs) and it will all benefit him even if you suspect a speech delay (I won't consider it so at that young age). Bilingualism is much more worth it than counting how many words he would say in his babyhood.

[Oana86]

'Just wanted to share my experience (even though you won't find my particular situation so relevant for this post).....my daughter is just about to turn 5 months (on Sunday) and because of our choices, she is immersed in a bilingual environment. We only speak English at home, but her dad speaks in Romanian with her (during the evening, if she's awake) and we also have the odd visit from a friend...or a conversation over the phone (in Romanian as well)...so my point is that she ends up hearing Romanian as well.

I look after her as my husband is working...and as you can imagine...we babble a lot during the day in English...and to be honest, she responds very well (in the sense that she shows particular emotions for some words from LR already). When my husband talks to her in Romanian, she seems to be just fine...and respond accordingly (as much as a 5 months old would be able to respons).

I am plannning to introduce her to other languages as well.....but I am very very curious what her first words will be ..and how she will mix the 2 languages:).

[nuria2012]

Hello friends! Perhaps you can have a look a DVD that I have bought in amazon co uk this week. According to the reviews that I have read, it is very good to help children to talk, even it has worked with children who are speech delayed. This book together with  other resources will arrive home about two weeks. When I have it at home, I can tell you about it.
The book is Oxbridge-Baby-Learn-Talk (you can find 50 customer reviews here)

My little baby girl is only four months and I want her to learn a second language. Yesterday some friends of mine come home. I was talking about it and showed them my books: ABC, games, Where´s baby belly button? They laugh at me. Here in Spain, bilinguism is not very common among Spanish speakers and that a baby learns to speak a second language when the mother is not native, less common.I have not commented them about this excellent programme, LR. She would think that I am totally crazy.  A baby girl learning to read???? Well, my real intention is that my little princess understands a second language and, if possible, talks in the future. If we are lucky, and she reads as well, I want to give a great surprise when she is older and can read as the babies of this programme. You are lucky because your babies are exposed to a bilingual environment. What I am doing is making use of TV, songs, everything in English.

I can check that my little babygirl likes LR because she smiles and pays attention. She can move her neck towards the left side much better her head. According to the doctor, she has got well. We are very happy. I have more time now to look for resources, and when she is awake I motivate to speak, babbling for example. She likes babbling... When she was only 15 days she said `ago´ and the paediatrician noticed and said to us: She has said ago. We were surprised.

 I also repeat what she babbles since she is two months, I think. It works. It is very funny, we talk in a nice language...

Sometimes I wonder about if be bilingual creates speech delay, and I am doing something wrong, instead of helping my daughter... But I have read about this matter and some children who are in a bilingual environment tend to speak later, but they are learning to talk in both languages. It is only a question of time.  I am sure that she will mix both languages, Spanish and English, but  suppose that with my continuous help, she will learn to differenciate the structures of both languages. I hope.

Well, I hope that Baby learn talk helps somebody. Remember you will find it in amazon uk. I will comment us about it, when I have it at home.

[IrisGranstedt]

There's a book called 'Baby Talk' by Dr Sally Ward that talks about how to effectively teach your child in just 30 minutes a day. It talks about how to talk to babies depends on their age and common problems. I thought the book was very good.

But basically, the main points I took away are -

1. speak clearly and in simple sentences
2. spend 30 minutes (or more) a day just follow your child and talk about things that he's looking at/playing with/interested in at that very moment.
3. even if child mispronounce, re-inforce by repeating the correct way intead of correcting.

[nuria2012]

I can give you now my opinion about the DVD that I bought two weeks ago: "Learn to talk". My five month daughter likes a lot. Well, not all the parts. She hates when pigs appear on the screen...  However, when the woman appears makes funny faces, my daughter giggles.   


Now I want to buy a new one. You can see it here: amazon.com There are 40 reviews. I think that the video must be better. There are many babies singing and signing and babies love looking other babies. 

Another resource is http://www.amazon.com/My-First-Signs-Baby-Signing/dp/1904550398/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345478608&sr=1-1&keywords=my+first+sign

I hope it helps

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