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 .

Don’t do this she’ll pick up on all three in due time but if you take this approach she’ll never be as fluent.

I’m an academic linguist, so I’m coming at this from the perspective of research evidence. There is a lot of recent work suggesting that the “One Parent One Language” (OPOL) approach is not particularly superior to other approaches. Some researchers have found that the most important thing is to have a consistent strategy for language use with your DC, whether that’s OPOL or something else. There’s also some evidence suggesting that OPOL may not provide children with enough exposure to the languages involved for them to develop fluency. It’s good for them to hear adults having conversations in a language, and to participate in conversations with multiple people, rather than only experiencing that language when it’s being spoken directly to them.

My parents did with me what you’re doing with DC. Both spoke Language A together and with me; mum spoke Languages B and C with me. Language B was later my school language. I speak A and B completely fluently, and C less well (but I understand it better than I can speak it).

It’s almost certainly not helpful for you to drop any of the languages with DC, unless a qualified professional with experience working with multilingual children assesses your DC and advises you to do this. It’s important that you have advice from people with experience, because even trained professionals can unknowingly hold on to outdated or incorrect ideas if they don’t specialise in working with multilingual children. It’s quite common for people to assume that multilingualism is naturally going to cause problems with language development, but that isn’t the case.

I hope you can get to the root of things soon, and that your DC thrives in the rich linguistic environment you’re providing.

You’re confusing her with three different languages. She probably doesn’t know what to think. focus on one at a time

It really should be one parent one language. You should stick to that

What's the theory behind that? I was brought up to use the language I was being spoken to in.

Check hearing. The very very first thing to suspect with speech delay is a hearing problem. A very worldweary ENT specialist told us this. My son at this age was like this- minus the three languages - and did give one word type answers. He had very bad but largely symptomless glue ear. How I wished I had never listened to all the stupid well meaning comments about children doing things in their own time etc. People often mention Einstein not speaking till he was seven which for starters is not even true.

You are doing a good thing teaching these languages.

its so good for brain development. Not just in languages but will also help her understand maths and read music.

keep doing what you are doing.

you are giving your child wonderful opportunities

She's not speech delayed she's overwhelmed

My sons are bilingual, and both were slightly behind in speech. Both clearly understood a lot by the age of say 2, but speaking was more behind. Both are still bilingual aged 19 and 10, although their English is better as their entire education has been in English. Both also have been fine at school, and don't have smaller vocabularies or anything.

Thank you . She really is smart on other things like reading and phonics. I just really hope she will thrive in school and not have problems .

Please OP listen to CymraesCymraeg rather than all the people who don't understand bi/multilingualism and just think it's a bit weird. British people are notoriously shit with languages and distrustful of foreign languages. All over the world children learn multiple languages from a young age successfully.

I wouldn't rush to attribute the delay to the languages spoken - speech delay isn't an inevitability for children learning more than one language. Has she had her hearing checked? Do you have any additional resources recommended from SALT? Maybe get a second SALT opinion if you weren't confident with the first opinion.

My eldest needed speech therapy when young ex husband family and himself blamed me for speaking with language to him so I stopped when he was 3. We only managed to get Speech therapy when he was 6. The speech therapy told me that me speaking my language to him was not the reason at all.

She did had her hearing checked and was fine . What I didn’t mention in my post is that she can say some sentences like where is my toy or I want this or that , she doesn’t make conversations back and fourth even though she can sing a whole song. I am taking her to groups and I’m on the waiting list for the new blocks for speech therapy .

I am thinking to take her in private speech therapy.

I wouldn't blame hearing/speaking multiple languages to her speech delay but would be looking at continuing speech therapy etc as you sounds to be doing.
My DD is exposed to two languages since birth and so are all my friends' kids with 2-3 languages as we are all foreigners and only two of the kids have delays. And in those two cases one has a dad who had delayed speech and second one has a sister who can speak fluently. And the one with dad who had delayed speech stopped speaking their native language to their kid and now their kid only knows English and it's unlikely he will learn their native language anymore which is an issue with communicating/socialising when they go back home.

Why make it harder for her at school? She will struggle to socialise and understand the lessons. I have experience as bilingual (younger than your child) but English as my main language as I've always lived in England. Made life and school a lot easier. Stick to two languages for a few years before introducing a third. She's struggling with one language so two more is confusing your DD.

I would focus on her main language and just use the others in a controlled way. Hearing all three without any boundaries is probably confusing.

Health visitor and paediatricians

Heya , no me and my partner are not fluent in English , she does understand all the languages we speak though even though she’s not making conversations. English is easier for her to speak though she can say sentences like I want this or that , or ask where she wants to go and do but when it comes to back and fourth conversation she can’t . We are on a waiting list for the next blocks for speech and language .

Op I know how worrying this is as I’ve also had a speech delayed dc. I would really recommend not waiting and seeing because early intervention is absolutely crucial with speech delayed dc. I would take her for a comprehensive assessment to a good private SALT now and pay for private therapy.

I would also get a private hearing test done with a good private hearing specialist, as hearing issues due to flue ear can be seasonal and can make a HUGE difference to speech acquisition.

Is he into sports?

This is entirely why people get into Triathlons.

Why be good at 1 sport when you can be bad at 3.

I knew a trilingual child in Northern Greece, many years ago. Her languages were Greek, Macedonian, and English. At age four she had no problem with speech, other than using all three languages mixed up, tho if somebody told her to use a particular language she would without a problem. She was asked not to use Macedonian with me, as I didn't understand it, and she didn't, just Greek and English.

I grew up as a bilingual child myself so in school I did struggle the first year it’s true but I catch up the second year and I had no difference from
other kids in my class in language. All kids are different though so it’s good they have all the help they need . We did not had any help when I was her age .

It's really common to have a slight delay in bi (or more) lingual children but they quickly catch up. Try not to worry too much much just ensure you expose her to lots of sources of the languages eg reading to her, speaking, age appropriate tv and ideally other children who speak that language. English will be just fine if they are being educated in it because it's everywhere