Trilingual child with speech delay

[Lize90]

Hello , i have a 4 year old who is struggling with conversations, she does understand everything and take directions , communicates with single words but doesn’t make back and forth conversations. She is involved with 3 languages as me and her father were raised in different countries. Do you have a similar experience , I’ve been to speech and language but I haven’t seen any improvement as they were trying to make her say words but she already knew that .

Are you doing one parent one language?

Can you step back on at least one of the languages for a bit?

If her speech is fine (ie no impediment) and it’s just the amount of language, I believe that’s perfectly normal in multilingual children. Their knowledge and comprehension is split across three languages, so they are slower in all when young.

I agree with pp. it will sort itself out.
Her first language will probably end up being the one she learns at school.

Anything she wants to say out loud she’s having to mentally process in three languages. She’s only 4, this will take some time.

She's not trilingual though as she's struggling to speak. Perhaps speak to her in the language of the country she resides in and will use at school only for now.

This is fairly normal. Any children I know who are bilingual tended to have a bit of a reduced vocabulary in both languages until around 7 or 8 when it seems to sort itself out.

It's a common myth that bi/multi-lingual children are routinely speech-delayed, and it's how a lot of them fall through the cracks of early intervention.

I'd be looking for further intervention... At the very least a different speech therapist.

Sorry, should have added that I'm an immigrant and don't know any mono-lingual families. My anecdotal experience backs up the research I've read, that a speech delay is rarely related to the number of languages a child has.

Has she had a hearing test?

No at home we speak the same language with my partner between us and with her . When I’m alone with her I speak to her the second language greek , me and her we also go often in Greece so she catch up there too. In nursery she’s speaking English .

I know bi and multi lingual children they were all speaking in sentences by 4. Single words sounds like some thing is going on.

Yeah I was thinking the same

I really hope that. Next year she’ll go reception so hopefully things will get better .

She’s not but that’s how many languages she hears since she was born . I’ve been told from everyone that we should continue speaking our language at home and that she will catch up English in school .

I’ve taken her to a paediatrician but opinions are different… some believe is the languages some don’t so I don’t know what to think that’s why I needed to hear from people with similar situations in here .

Yea everything was fine .

I think carry on as you are. She'll get it soon enough. Greek will probably end up being a language she never talks in, but understands. As long as she can communicate enough with her peers to play with, and you at home to make her needs known, that's good enough.

Mum to bilingual kid. We were helped by speech and language therapy. Our toolbox focused on slowing down conversation. Simplifying language (they may understand complex sentences but are unable to say them fluently) - and give the child an opportunity to practice simple storytelling - with flashcards, memory games. So they practice saying very simple
' baby' sentences.
Also rule out eye/ hearing stuff - our kid was myopic and was spending a lot of energy simply trying to focus - resulting in overall fatigue.
Good luck!

A delay in speech development is normal for bilingual kids but this sounds more severe than normal. I would lay off one language for a whole and maybe promote just one to see if she can speak in sentences. The problem with leaving it till 7 or 8 is that if there is a problem, any intervention will be far less effective than it could be at this age.

my bestfriends kids were like this - they stopped the languages and just carried on in english.

Has an experienced teacher in an English school told you that?

My cousin is bilingual and was slow to speak. He’s fine now. It might be worth consulting a specialist in speech just to reassure yourself or address any potential issues early doors.

I had one like that. Everyone told me it's the three language which slowed everything down (even though there is plenty of research which does not support that). To cut a long story short, child has complex needs and learning difficulties and that was the reason for the delay. The trilingual upbringing was just a red herring. We switched to English only at some point which helped (but is obviously no cure for the learning difficulties/complex needs) but it made things easier esp at school.

I can't see how stopping a language will help. It seems like that will just make learning her family languages harder for her.

I would keep on with all three languages and make sure that she is hearing examples of conversations. So where two or more people take turns to talk and listen to each other.

You could roleplay this with dolls/teddies and check that screen time includes examples of conversations. I noticed some children's programs are narrated so don't actually demonstrate conversations.

What do nursery say and what are they doing to support her?