| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | 3 yr old boy spanish/english, no real proficiency in either, help Thread poster: jaymay
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| Parents Instinct | Oct 7, 2005 |
I agree with the opinions above, but I would like to comment on the fact that all the comments, although similar, have particularities regarding the strategies each parent has taken and it is so obvious because each child is as different as each family is. I would suggest that, besides learning more about bilingual children (all the cognitive aspects and the like that you can find in good books and magazines), you follow your instict as parent. You and your wife know your baby better than anybod... See more I agree with the opinions above, but I would like to comment on the fact that all the comments, although similar, have particularities regarding the strategies each parent has taken and it is so obvious because each child is as different as each family is. I would suggest that, besides learning more about bilingual children (all the cognitive aspects and the like that you can find in good books and magazines), you follow your instict as parent. You and your wife know your baby better than anybody, just be observant. ▲ Collapse
| | | | jaymay
English to Spanish
TOPIC STARTER | Thanks for the help | Oct 7, 2005 |
Well we've read all of your replies, and we'd like to thank everyone for the advice and encouragement.
I suppose we could get his hearing checked, but I honestly don't think that's a problem as he responds easily to his name. I also did the snaped finger test on him when he was a baby on both ears and he responded apropriately.
We've implemented the OPOL concept, so we'll see if that works
On average at what age do bilingual children start to be able to s... See more Well we've read all of your replies, and we'd like to thank everyone for the advice and encouragement.
I suppose we could get his hearing checked, but I honestly don't think that's a problem as he responds easily to his name. I also did the snaped finger test on him when he was a baby on both ears and he responded apropriately.
We've implemented the OPOL concept, so we'll see if that works
On average at what age do bilingual children start to be able to speak in 3 or 4 word sentences?
thanks again for all the help,
Jason & Mayra ▲ Collapse
| | | | arksevost
United States
Local time: 22:31
English to Russian
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| I am experiencing the same situation as you are with your child | Oct 7, 2005 |
I recently moved to the US and our family is bilingual as well. While I am a professionaltranslator and interpreter from English into Russian, my son isobviously native Russian and he is learning English now at school. He started practicing alot of English at school, but what we do, we insistantly speak Russian at home.Otherwise he will forget or even if not forget, but will be reluctant to speak amy Russian at all being surrounded by English speaking kids and adults. So I found a simple solutio... See more I recently moved to the US and our family is bilingual as well. While I am a professionaltranslator and interpreter from English into Russian, my son isobviously native Russian and he is learning English now at school. He started practicing alot of English at school, but what we do, we insistantly speak Russian at home.Otherwise he will forget or even if not forget, but will be reluctant to speak amy Russian at all being surrounded by English speaking kids and adults. So I found a simple solution for him, to sit and write dictations, kind of small quizes every Saturday or Sunday for about half an hour or so and try not to be lazy to have him read me a book in his native language. I feel it will be almowt a crime if he forgets his native language amd I believe a lot is dependent on a parent in this situation. So read more in Spanish for him and when he is grown up enough (and if he can't write in Spanish yet)teach him to write in Spanish. I guess Englishshould not be a problem. When he grow he will be very grateful to you for that. As job opportunities are always there for bilinguals or trilinguals.All the best ▲ Collapse
| | | | RHELLER
United States
Local time: 21:31
French to English
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| it's an individual thing | Oct 7, 2005 |
don't panic - these are generalities
http://www.parents.com/articles/ages_and_stages/3062.jsp
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taken from: Speech Development in the Infant and Toddler
by Debbie Reese; June 1998
At 2 years of age, the child can combine words, forming simple sentences like "Daddy go."
At 3 ... See more don't panic - these are generalities
http://www.parents.com/articles/ages_and_stages/3062.jsp
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taken from: Speech Development in the Infant and Toddler
by Debbie Reese; June 1998
At 2 years of age, the child can combine words, forming simple sentences like "Daddy go."
At 3 years of age, the child can use sentences two- to four-words long, follow simple instructions, and often repeat words he/she overhears in conversations.
At 4 years of age, the child can understand most sentences, understands physical relationships (on, in, under), uses sentences that are four- or five-words long, can say his/her name, age, and sex, and uses pronouns. Strangers can understand the child’s spoken language.
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content4/speech.develop.baby.pn.html ▲ Collapse
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Jeff Allen 
France
Local time: 05:31
Multiplelanguages
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| speech production for a bilingual child at 3 years old | Oct 8, 2005 |
As for my son, he is 3 years old this month. He arrived in our home at the age of 13 months from another French speaking country. My wife speaks to him in French, and I speak to him in American English. French is the language we speak at home in general and we live in France.
He is currently at the 3-4 word sentence stage and the majority of sentences "appear" to be in French (when they are understandable). Intonation curves are the real giveaway to understanding children's speech at that... See more As for my son, he is 3 years old this month. He arrived in our home at the age of 13 months from another French speaking country. My wife speaks to him in French, and I speak to him in American English. French is the language we speak at home in general and we live in France.
He is currently at the 3-4 word sentence stage and the majority of sentences "appear" to be in French (when they are understandable). Intonation curves are the real giveaway to understanding children's speech at that age. Some of his favorite words come out in English.
He started public pre-school a month ago and we'll see how that helps with his ability to express himself in groups.
As several people have said in this thread: each child is a individual case. Speech production is usually slower with bi/multilingual children than with monolingual ones. Don't worry too much, but do check on the auditory skills. Finger snapping and clapping is just a basic level. There are now special exams that can be conducted with sound frequency levels. Our 3-month baby son just had one of these advanced auditory exams performed on him a couple of weeks ago.
Don't be ashamed to be the only person possibly talking to your child in another language, even in public. I do it all the time and do not regret it , because the result is that my son understands everything I say to him. And even better, he understood my monolingual father who came to spend 3 weeks with us recently, and he also understands phone conversations in English with other family members/relatives.
Make sure to keep a clear distinction between "language comprehension" and "language production". Some people refer to these as passive and active language skills, respectively. There are different criteria for rating them. It is natural for the comprehension/passive language skills to be more developed than the production/active ones.
One of the tips that my sister (who works in foster/adoptive child placement) gave to me is the following. Keep a small diary and log all the vocabulary words used by your child, and when s/he started understanding or using such and such word. This can help you keep a real record of what is known or not, and can be encouraging for you to see that your child really might have a larger vocabulary than you realize.
Jeff ▲ Collapse
| | | | NancyLynn
Canada
Local time: 23:31
Member (2002)
French to English
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MODERATOR | My own case : the tiny interpreter | Oct 8, 2005 |
Growing up, my mum spoke French to me, my da English, and even today, speaking English to my mum is as awkward as walking with my shoes on the wrong feet.
I never mixed the two into franglais (something people will warn you against). The two languages were separate in my mind from Day One.
Now, with my own children, the situation is the same. My husband is monolingual English. My daughter will speak with me in French, then turn to her Daddy and repeat everything (accura... See more Growing up, my mum spoke French to me, my da English, and even today, speaking English to my mum is as awkward as walking with my shoes on the wrong feet.
I never mixed the two into franglais (something people will warn you against). The two languages were separate in my mind from Day One.
Now, with my own children, the situation is the same. My husband is monolingual English. My daughter will speak with me in French, then turn to her Daddy and repeat everything (accurately) in English for his benefit - she`s 5.:-)
Don't worry, it comes fast.
Nancy ▲ Collapse
| | | | | He's a toddler ... development varies | Oct 11, 2005 |
jaymay wrote:
After reading this forum we've realized that we need to be more consistant with which language we speak. Occasionally we fall in to spanglish so we are going to make a serious effort to stop that.
Grandma thinks we need to drop spanish altogether for now, I disagree. I see my son as intelligent, but cautious. What advice could you give us?
jason & mayra
He's three ... he is actually on track (it's a wide track at that age - some kids are chatterboxes, others still babbling with a few real words thrown in). If he's not picking up consonants in words he repeats, his hearing may be a problem, but the babbling as if he's speaking a known language and the rest of the symptoms sounds like many toddlers.
And in a bilingual house, pick the minority language and stick to it.
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content4/speech.develop.baby.pn.html
http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/toddler/toddlerdevelopment/11738.html
READ to him! Every day!
Talk to him, and don't finish his sentences ... he needs time to process what he's going to say.
| | | | juvera
Local time: 04:31
English to Hungarian
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| do not give up either language, | Oct 13, 2005 |
that would be a mistake. Most people said a lot of wise things along that line already, and as they say, consistency, - mum speaking Spanish to him and dad English is very important.
I would like to add a couple of other things.
He may surprise you in a few month time and come out with full sentences. My second son did just that. It is a question of temperament.
The other thing is, he just started to go to his pre k
and exposed to a lot of new things. He will need time ... See more that would be a mistake. Most people said a lot of wise things along that line already, and as they say, consistency, - mum speaking Spanish to him and dad English is very important.
I would like to add a couple of other things.
He may surprise you in a few month time and come out with full sentences. My second son did just that. It is a question of temperament.
The other thing is, he just started to go to his pre k
and exposed to a lot of new things. He will need time to work through all the new influences, and probably that is the most important thing for him. Once he is used to it, becomes confident, he may use his energy to concentrate on speaking.
There is an important aspect of child development very few books even mention. The development phases the child goes through can be very short, a day or a few days, or may be longer. Picking up something, standing, walking, potty training, talking, learning to play with a new toy, opening doors, coming down stairs, using implements, etc. You cannot force any of them, but watch when he wants to do it, and help, make him practice. If you catch the time when he wants to do it, and then put as much effort into it as he does, you will have a happy child, who will learn things miraculosly quickly.
If you try to potty train him when he is hell-bent to master his tricycle, you will not succeed, you may even put him off potty training for quite a while, he will be unhappy, (you too), and he probably will get fed up with the tricycle as well.
Just talk, using the guidelines the others already said, and watch him, what does he want to learn, then provide support. And forget what they say about at what age he is "supposed" to do things. He may do something much later, but others much earlier.
Good luck and lots of happiness. ▲ Collapse
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AnPa
Italy
Local time: 05:31
Italian to German
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| one person - one language | Oct 14, 2005 |
I grew up my two sons (15 and 10 years old) talking to them exclusively in german, though living in Italy. My husband is Italian and he speaks to them in Italian. My oldest son has never had any problems and could 'switch' between both languages right from the beginning. He started talking at the age of about 15 months (i kept a kind of language-diary). Today when we are in Germany noone will notice, that he did not grow up in Germany - when he talks. I did not insist on teaching him reading in ... See more I grew up my two sons (15 and 10 years old) talking to them exclusively in german, though living in Italy. My husband is Italian and he speaks to them in Italian. My oldest son has never had any problems and could 'switch' between both languages right from the beginning. He started talking at the age of about 15 months (i kept a kind of language-diary). Today when we are in Germany noone will notice, that he did not grow up in Germany - when he talks. I did not insist on teaching him reading in German, but by now he can read, the alphabet used is the same and he knows how words are pronounciated, being fluent in German.
My second son's language skills in Italian/German are completely different. He keeps on mixing not only words but also grammatical structures. There are certainly several reasons for this different development (i spent less time with him than with my first born son), but the main one is, from my experience, that the capacity of 'capturing' the very essence of a language is different in every individual. So when he started going to school we had to concentrate on enabling him to learn at least one language in a 'perfect' way, the dominating language. I call it dominating because it's the language a child uses at school, when it starts learning how to read and write. I just had to accept, that he will never be perfect in 2 languages, insisting too much on both languages in an equal manner would have created him problems.
So my advice for you is to first split up the 'language task'(one person - one language), never mix the languages and later on, when your child goes to school, observe whether he has problems in building sentences correctly in the dominant language. If he has, you can try to put more weight on the language you think he should be able to read, write and speak perfectly. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | He will come around | May 20, 2006 |
I have heard this same worry from many parents raising their children bilingually. They do all check the child's hearing ability becasue they are worried their child might not be able to hear well. Usually children being raised this way take a little longer before they start to speak. That is normal. I was raised with three languages and my parents tell me I took forever to start peaking.
Usually children that are raised biligually, do show a very high ability to speak clearly once... See more I have heard this same worry from many parents raising their children bilingually. They do all check the child's hearing ability becasue they are worried their child might not be able to hear well. Usually children being raised this way take a little longer before they start to speak. That is normal. I was raised with three languages and my parents tell me I took forever to start peaking.
Usually children that are raised biligually, do show a very high ability to speak clearly once they do start speaking. teir diction is much much clearer than that of children their same age. say a foru year old monolingual child compared to a four year old biligual child. When the latter speaks he or she will do so more clearly than his or her counterpart.
Every child is different and some might take longer to start speaking while others might be faster. Bilingual surroundings have no negative baring on their ability to speak at all.
It has also been shown that children raised in a bilingual setting are able to think more complexly at an earlier age than monolingual children in their age groups. The learning process is different for bilingual children becasue their ability to think in two different languages automatically restructures their thinking process in a positive way. I really would not worry about your child no speaking yet. He will come aorund and I am sure that when he does he will surprise even moreso than he does now with what he will be able to do and say.
Give your baby a hug, and greetings to you from germany.
jaymay wrote:
My wife is mexican and I am american, We live in the states and we are both fluent in spanish and english. Grandma lives nearby and only speaks english, although she knows a few spanish words.
As an only child and living in a city where we don't really know anyone with prek kids my son has really only been exposed to us. We speak about 90% spanish in the household. and my son watches mostly english tv, cartoons, etc. Mostly english books, although we have mixed a few spanish ones in there.
Up until about a month ago he was only speaking a few spanish baby words and a lot of babble. We were a little concerned, but mostly we just chalked it up to a bilingual household.
A month ago he started pre pre k, After the first day we realized he didn't really understand english at all. so we started speaking mostly english to him. He has progressed some in that he knows more english words, but the reality is that he doesn't speak in either language. He seems to understand spanish better than english, but it seems clear that he doesn't understand either great.
He happily babbles on which makes us think that he thinks he is speaking correctly, but it is completely incomprehensible. When he babbles he is clearly telling a story or repeating a memory, but only every once in a while is something comprehensible.
He is able to repeat just about any one or two sylable word, but more than two sylables and it turns into a babble word with the correct ending. We teach him words, by pointing to items and saying the word, etc.
After reading this forum we've realized that we need to be more consistant with which language we speak. Occasionally we fall in to spanglish so we are going to make a serious effort to stop that.
Grandma thinks we need to drop spanish altogether for now, I disagree. I see my son as intelligent, but cautious. What advice could you give us?
thanks so much for the help,
jason & mayra ▲ Collapse
| | | | kmtext
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:31
English
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| Take it easy. | Mar 6, 2007 |
Relax and let him develop. If you're worried about his language skills and whether or not he's making sense, ask him questions. Then, ask him the same questions and get him to reply in the other language. It's time-consuming, but will be worth it in the end. Some kids take longer than others to come out with coherent sentences. It doesn't mean that there's anything wrong.
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