Does having two different accents in the house affect childs speech?

[SixStringWidowTwankey]

Bear with me on this, I am aware of how silly this sounds...

Just back from dd's 12 month check up. HV mentioned that we need to work on her speech. She's babbling but obviously not as much as she should be

Anyway, perhaps I've been over thinking this but could this have anything to do with the fact that I am from Liverpool and her dad is from Scotland?

We even pronounce her name differently because of our accents - are we confusing her?

For example I say world, he says wurrold... :)

Wondered what your thoughts were on this...

no I don't think so. DH and I have different accents (Midlands and Northern) and we live down south. DS1 used to say certain words like DH but now speak with a very posh accent! His speech wasn't delayed AFAIK

Hi, I am Scottish and my husband is from Nottingham. We pronounce our daughter's name differently (Orla). Orla was saying words at 8 months and people comment all the time about what great speech she has for her age. I think babies are all different and I don;t think the two accents have anything to do with it.

Thanks for the responses. :)

Personally, I think dd is doing ok, she is very vocal and as I said babbles a lot, but just not actual words. She's only 12 months.

The accents things was just an idea.

I suppose I'm a little bit peeved that the HV said her speech wasn't up to scratch - PFB anyone :)

We have 2 accents in the house, I'm from the UK and DH is foreign. DD1 is a good talker and started talking fairly early so I don't think it has had any negative affect on her but she pronounces some words with my accent, some with DHs accent and some words (ones learnt at preschool) with the local area accent.
So she has 3 accents that change with every word so its quite funny, but I think its cute.

my mother was german, my father from yorkshire and english was always spoken in the house . I remember having a quite distinct germanic accent with certain words, (still do so i am told) but so what.my speech was slightly delayed compared to my peers, but i soon caught up at school. dont worry .the speech delay was more likely due to the way my older brother did my talking for me.

I doubt it. Must be billions of babies growing up with at least 2 accents at home!

I am a bit about babbling these days, as DD barely did it - no idea why, she was just one of those 'taking it all in' babies. Her speech developed at more or less the average time and she talks extremely well at 2.5

What they're doing at 12mths is probably not that relevant IMO.

In answer to your question, not in my experience.

How do you 'work' on speech with a baby, other than chatting which I presume you do anyway?

IME not having any recognisable words at 12mo is entirely normal. Both my boys were very proficient talkers by age 2 and neither of them said a word before 16mo.

We have two languages and while our daughter only has about five clear words at 18 months. I'm told that's normal for bilingual families. She clearly understands a lot more though, I can't imagine two accents would be an issue.

Interestingly the five words are common to both labguages with slightly different pronounications, we're stillw aiting to see which one will be her 'mother' tongue. Maybe you'll have the same? As in one accent will win out?

Barbarian Yes, I was wondering that aswell.

We constantly chat to dd, she recognises words and even points to the associated item in our house. for example if we say point to the bird, she'll point in the direction of the birds cage.

I'm not sure we can do any more than we are already doing - we read to her often too.

The more response I get to this thread the more I realise that I'm not doing anything wrong and that dd will develop at her own rate.

the other thing is that with DS1 I used to think what he was saying was baby nonsense and couldn't pick out specific words. Now DS2 is learning to speak I recognise far more words as I'm more attuned to it. Perhaps she has a fab vocabulary, just that you can't understand it!

@TeW My best babbler was my slowest talker. I don't think there's as much in babbling as they think.

Definitely not a problem for us. I'm a Scot, DH is Estuary, DD sounds like she's from Brooklyn most of the time.
Me - "stoap!"
Him - "stop!"
Her - "staaaap!"

DP and I are engaged in a battle about whether 'grass' rhymes with 'arse' or not. (I say not, and obviously I'm right .) The DCs are listening to neither of us.

DP is French, I speak proper English Laaandan, my mother's from Sheffield (she has DD whilst I'm at work) and DD was a very early talker, with around 100 words at 12 months. She still says words with all three accents

The thing is, she didn't walk until 20 months. We were frantic with worry.

There's always something- don't worry. Her receptive language sounds good, and it sounds like you are doing a brilliant job.

Ignoring the HV is a necessary parental skill to develop I think

Err - she is 12 months....'she needs to work on her speech' - your HV needs to get real. I've had 3 go through that age and they've all only just babbled at that age- possibly managed mamma and thats about it. Don't think it's accents - more her age

I'm trying to think, and I don't think DD has any words at just turned 1. I don't remember HV asking if she did either!

thanks everyone.

very reassuring comments here.

I'll take on board the comments about ignoring HV comments re speech, probably the best advice I've received on here

My son has speech delay. I am Scottish and DH is English. I asked this question and she said it has no bearing on it whatsoever.

I'm American and my husband is Northern Irish. Son babbled and talks fairly well at 2.5.

I think the HV is crazy.

Oh and son seems to be developing, strangely, this sort of upper class Bostonian accent... 'watah' rather than 'water' for example!

Oh this really struck a chord with me! At my DD1 2 yr check (at home) the HV said that DDs speech was "not good" as she couldn't understand her, then proceeded to blame my accent (West coast Scottish, living in Leeds) I was a bit upset at this ad I was so used to compliments on DDs conversational skills and vocabulary. She was late to walk, get her first tooth etc but could talk your ears off from very early on.

DD picked up on this and started taking the piss a bit, swaying between mumbling her answers and talking very loudly and clearly in a broad Scots accent a la my Mum!

Then she told HV a cow was a sheep, a pig a horse etc, pink was blue, green was Orange etc. I was

HV left and DD said "that will learn her" and a big wink!

Anyway, to get to the point, no your child won't be affected or confused by different accents. But he will probably be able to adopt either into his speech at will.

I soon learned to ignore everything HV said, I know there are excellent HV out there but unfortunately I never got one. Was a big let down after my fantastic community midwife experience.

Tethers your DC sounds a lot like my DD1, when Dd2 and 3 walked a lot earlier than dd1 I was totally unprepared, but neither were/are as good at talking.

Is your hv mad? What was she expecting a 12 month old to say? most babble and say mama, da da baba what was she expecting?