For teachers, this is about babies learning languages

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Water Stones

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 7:05 pm

Hi
My language is Danish learning better English and Yiddish and my DH speak English and Yiddish.

So I been speaking to our baby in Danish and he speak to her in English and my MIL speak to her in Yiddish. She is 5 month old.

Now I got afraid she will learn to talk late than the normal age be cause may be she get confused?

My DH say lets just do it this way be cause she will learn have no confusion in language be cause she get it right away from born.

But teachers, what is true?

Thank you!

tichellady

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 7:27 pm

It may take her longer to learn to talk but it's great for her to learn so many languages

amother

Green

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 7:41 pm

Teachers are not the ones to ask, speech therapists are the experts for this (maybe change your title to say speech therapists?) As someone who has bilingual kids (speaking 2 languages) I can tell you a few things from experience. The way you're doing it is generally the best way, 1 language per person- so you always speak danish to the baby and your husband always speaks English. Yes, they may learn to speak later, but that's not a bad thing. In the long run, knowing more languages is better than the slight disadvantage of speaking a little later. The younger you learn, the better. I speak 3 languages, the first 2 I've known since I was a baby, so much I can't really say which one is really native, they're both native to me. My third language I learned in high school, and while I speak it pretty well, you just can't compare to the two I've known from birth.

little_mage

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 7:42 pm

If I remember the research that's been done, children who are spoken to in multiple languages often do start talking slightly later then average, but the benefits of multilingualism balance that out.

amazingmommy

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 7:44 pm

I agree.
She might talk alittle later- but she will talk all languages. Good for you!

Miri7

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 8:28 pm

little_mage wrote:

If I remember the research that's been done, children who are spoken to in multiple languages often do start talking slightly later then average, but the benefits of multilingualism balance that out.

This is also what our pediatrician told us. Having second and third languages is GREAT for kids. Don't worry if they are a bit slower in talking.

rachaelle

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 9:00 pm

Speech therapist here- like everyone above said, it may cause slight delays in language development in one or more of the languages she is being exposed to, but the benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism surpass that. The younger she learns another language, the easier it is and the more proficient she'll be in it.
This concept of learning more than one language at the same time is called Simultaneous Bilingualism, if you want to look into it further.

Water Stones

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 9:58 pm

rachaelle wrote:

But will she speak well by time she go to school?

Thank you to all of you who respond to me!!

amazingmommy

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 10:05 pm

I believe so.

amother

Green

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 10:18 pm

Yes, they'll get it just fine by school age. Even if they still sometimes code switch (fancy way of saying they sometimes mix the languages), they'll be fine in school. Since you live in the US now, presumably she'll attend an English speaking school. She'll pick up very quickly that school is a place where everyone speaks English and Danish is for home/with mom.

amother

Green

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 10:22 pm

Also, some kids do have real delays or language processing disorders. If that happens, you can get a speech therapist who specializes in multilingual kids (doesn't need to know Danish, just needs to understand how to work with kids who speak multiple languages). My cousin specializes in this area. She lives in Brooklyn and works with a lot of Spanish speaking kids and also Yiddish speaking kids (she happens to speak Spanish, doesn't know any Yiddish, but is still able to work with them). If you want to talk more about your situation, I can put you in touch with her.

amother

Babyblue

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 10:38 pm

Seashells wrote:

But will she speak well by time she go to school?

Thank you to all of you who respond to me!!

Our family has one English-speaking parent and one Hebrew-speaking parent. We started OPOL (one parent, one language - each of us being careful to speak only one language consistently) when our child turned two. Our child occasionally mixed languages at first, but rarely and only for a few months. School was not a problem at all.

It is normal and natural to learn language in early childhood. Best to do it as early as possible.

bobeli

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 10:45 pm

it works if the adults are consistent in the language they talk to the child.
once she goes to school you will have to enforce the non school language more at home so she won't forget it. like making sure she answers you in danish and not in english.

I one red about the benefits of been multilingual to the neuron conecctions in the brain. it talked about how kids that where exposed to more languages when young, and are fluent in them, have a better decision making skills, etc.

amother

Teal

Fri, Aug 19 2016, 12:07 am

I did my master's thesis on this topic. That's why I'm a mother for this post.

At birth, babies can distinguish the basic sounds of all languages. Any languages that a baby is exposed to regularly by her caretakers becomes her "home language." This also includes sign language. She will get used to the sound of those languages, and will start to pick up the meaning of words when she is ready.

One fascinating study showed that newborns from different countries cry with a slightly different inflection, consistent with their home language. Speak to your baby in an unfamiliar language, and she will notice something is different.

At about one year of age, a certain learning window closes in the brain, and the sounds of familiar languages get locked in. The brain has now set its idea of what its home languages are, and what is foreign. After this point, it becomes progressively harder to learn the correct pronunciation of sounds unique to unfamiliar languages. One study compared American and Japanese babies' and toddlers' ability to distinguish between L and R sounds (which are distinct in English, but not Japanese), and found that American toddlers had no trouble telling the sounds apart, while Japanese toddlers (and even the Japanese research team) had difficulty.

Some research says that babies in bilingual households begin speaking a bit later, but they catch up quickly. Not all studies agree that there is a delay. Babies can catch on to the idea that several different words can have similar meanings. At one time, it was thought that babies learn all words together, and don't understand that bilingual parents are speaking two languages. But, it is now understood that Babies do realize that you are speaking several languages to them because the basic sounds and inflection s are different, but they adapt quickly to function using alternate "verbal codes."

It was hypothesized that bilingual babies develop some cognitive advantage over single- language learners, but the evidence is weak. All babies learn langauge best when they are spoken with often and directly by live people, in as interactive way as possible for their age. This is true regardless of how many languages are being spoken. A child's command of language is affected by the richness of her language environment, not the number of distinct languages spoken.

The young human brain is designed to communicate by any means possible, and will adapt to pretty much anything you throw at it.

rachaelle

Fri, Aug 19 2016, 1:10 am

Seashells wrote:

But will she speak well by time she go to school?

Thank you to all of you who respond to me!!

If she's developing language at a typical rate, she will be fine communicating in both languages, although she may code switch (as mentioned above)

Teal amother I did a paper on that study. Thanks for refreshing me Smile

amother

Teal

Fri, Aug 19 2016, 9:07 am

rachaelle wrote:

You're welcome. In my thesis, I took a study comparing bilingual children from Canada, and bilingual Navajo children that examined the difference between learning a second language native to your country versus a second heritage language (Navajo). Then I repeated the same research plan with American Jewish children learning Hebrew.

The children's attitude towards heritage and non-heritage languages are different, but it doesnt seem to affect their language learning outcomes (apart from factors like how much they are exposed to and use the language).

So when a Dutch child learns English and Yiddish, the most important things that determines how well he learns are:
How much he is spoken with daily
Hearing language in varied situations
Face to face interaction

rachaelle

Fri, Aug 19 2016, 11:14 am

amother wrote:

That sounds like a fascinating research project!

debsey

Fri, Aug 19 2016, 12:07 pm

With one important consideration - if the child has a language based learning disability, then experts will recommend sticking to one language for that child. If she doesn't have a learning disability, then learning 3 languages straight from birth is amazing for her.

Water Stones

Fri, Aug 19 2016, 12:53 pm

Thank you very much. I feel ok about it now.

cbg

Fri, Aug 19 2016, 2:23 pm

tichellady wrote:

It may take her longer to learn to talk but it's great for her to learn so many languages

It may take her longer to learn to talk, BUT it has proven to increase IQ, some experts say by a good 20 pts.

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