25month-old speech: Bilingual

[JustMe9]

Hi are there any other bilingual families here? Does your 2 year olds speak much? My little boy is getting mixed between languages and I think its hard for him to develop his speach properly... I assume 2 year olds normally talk a lot by this age ?

Mixing languages is normal for bilingual children and should not be a cause for concern. It is also quite normal for bilingual children to be a little bit slower in their language development- after all, they do have twice as much to think about. But very good for their brains in the long run.

Is he speaking in sentences yet?

Does he understand instructions?

just seen that he is only 25mo- so only just 2

my dd spoke her first sentence at 22 or 23 months- and it was a complete bilingual mix

can't remember when ds spoke his first sentence but it certainly wasn't any earlier

neither has had any difficulties with their speech in later years

The typical 2 year old would have a few hundred words and would start putting two word sentences together, so they might have lots of random words that they will use appropriately but are unable (and not expected) to hold any two way conversation (they will typically not respond to direct questions)

Both my children are bilingual. My oldest is 3 now and at 2 just he didn't talk at all just mummy and Daddy. It took until he was almost 3 for proper sentences but then it got going quite quickly.

My oldest was very different and already able to construct sentences in both languages before the age of 2.

I don't think you have anything to worry about he sounds perfectly normal to me

Sorry I meant to say my youngest is now 3 not my oldest, he is 6

Well my 25month old boy does know a lot of single words and are starting to use two word sentences (it maybe even more but I just dont understand some of the words he is saying lol)
My worry is that sometimes he will combine a sentence from 1 word english and second word another language which i perfectly understand. However, people at his nursery or HV might not count that as talking because they dont know the foreign language. ALso, I dont think he has hundreds of words - more like close to 100 I would say but again - its a mixture of languages. However, he understands both languages very well... which I find amazing :)

My worry is that sometimes he will combine a sentence from 1 word english and second word another language which i perfectly understand.

Sounds like his development is perfectly normal in that case. Eventually he will start distinguishing and learn that there is a social advantage in keeping them distinct, at least outside a family setting. He may also go through a phase of refusing to use one language. Don't panic, just keep doing what you're doing.

However, people at his nursery or HV might not count that as talking because they dont know the foreign language.

Does it matter what they count? Read up on bilingual language acquisition and be prepared to explain to them if needed.

As you say yourself, what he can actually do is pretty amazing. And is very, very good for his brain development.

"nursery or HV might not count that as talking" - who cares what the nursery or HV count or not count as words or talking because of what they can or can't understand, it does not have much bearing on his development. At 2 years old, over 70% of words will only be understood by the parents and close relatives, towards 2.5 years it will increase to around 50% - and this is just for pure English words, so you can imagine the difficulty if we also add other languages to the mix. At this age your son is unlikely to be aware that you are speaking two distinct languages, for him it will just be one language made up of many sounds (words) which he is collecting in the same bucket, so it makes sense that he would combine them, it is perfectly normal.

I have three bilingual children (youngest is now 7). They all spoke at different times and with different abilities. My eldest is excellent in english and refuses to read in my language but he speaks it fluently, without accent. My middle one reads both languages. My youngest, nursery told me to get his hearing checked at 20 months because he wasnt speaking. I did the check and it turned out that the nursery was worrying for nothing. Hearing fine and he started saying his first few words shortly before turning two. He now speaks well both languages also his speech is kind of slower but i suppose you wouldnt notice if you were not me! Teachers are school are always surprised when i ask questions about his speech because for them, it is absolutly normal. He also reads in both language but find writing super difficult and stressful in my language.
Hope this help. Don't worry. But if you do, get him checked, it would help you relax.

sorry about all the typos!

I know two bilingual two year olds. One switches easily between the two languages, and knows immediately which language to use depending on who is speaking to them, speaks very clearly, fluently, and has a wide vocabulary. The other speaks very clearly and fluently in English, but needs to be cajoled to speak in the second language (though can speak it!) The first one was mixing up the two languages last year, but not anymore. I think sometimes one language maybe has a better word for something, or if there are people from both cultures around it's confusing for them!

On the other hand, I also know a nearly 3 year old monolingual child who barely speaks and is very unclear in their speech when they do! Children all develop at their own pace.

My children are 19 and 22. Both mixed languages when they were young, both learnt not to do so as they grew up, at least not outside a family context, both are fluent in both languages, neither has had any problems with their language development, though one of them went through stages of refusing to speak first the one, then the other language. Dd has a stronger regional accent in the minority language than I do. But is also training to be an actress in the UK, so absolutely nothing wrong with her English.