Any do's or don't's for a multilingual household?

[Catchmesomezzzzzzz]

Just that, really. We speak 3-4 languages at home and my DD is 10 months old. So far my husband and I have been switching between languages without giving it much thought, but I came across something on youtube where a mum had been advised to stick to one language due to her son's speech delay, which got me wondering- should I be doing/avoiding anything so as not to confuse DD? Recently she has started clapping her hands whenever we tell her to, in 2 languages, so I guess she understands the command in both?

TIA

I came across something on youtube where a mum had been advised to stick to one language due to her son's speech delay,

Wonder who gave them that advice? We only speak one language it even I know that multi-lingual children often speak later than their contemporaries.

Have you tried posting in Multicultural Families OP? You might get a few people with some experience replying, ie, not me

Can only speak from experience but we pointedly spoke both languages at home from birth, including reinforcing with books in both languages etc. DC understanding by 2 spot on and is completely fluent at 4 in both /confident to switch and engage with in-laws in their language. We didn't read anything about how to do it, it just felt natural for each of us to focus on our language etc with DC. Best of luck

Hello!
I'm wondering if anyone is in a similar language situation to mine or knows someone who is in this kind of situation. I'm expecting my first baby and trying to come up with a system that will work for us.

We're living in England and my partner is English and only speaks English. I on the other hand speak 3 languages fluently: English, Russian (native language) and German (went to school and Uni in Germany and my parents still living there).

I'd really like to give my child all three languages if I can, but from what I read, multilingual growing up ideally should be done systematically: not just random switching back and forth as I feel. Ideal situation is when the mother speaks one language and the father another. Or mother speaks one language, father another and the language of the country is a third one, which the child picks up in kindergarten/school etc. However I don't have any of these ways to separate. In our case, the country language is also the father's only language.

If I chose one of my languages (Russian or German), I'd know what to do, but is there a way I can introduce both from my side while keeping them clearly separated nevertheless?

Should this kind of situation already have been discussed on another thread, could you please point me in the right direction to find it? I saw a couple of posts about growing up bilingual but couldn't find this kind of situation anywhere. So decided to reply to the latest thread I could find, which was this one.

My cousins are bilingual. One thing that they still do now as adults is talk to dad only in one language and mum in the other. Both parents have always been careful not to switch languages and this really seems to have helped them compartmentalise. They're fluent in English and German. I have other cousins who had to pick up 3 languages and tbh they struggled a tad, possibly because parents weren't quite as stringent with sticking to their own language or possibly just because of the extra challenge of a 3rd language. They did catch up in the end though but have since all but forgotten their 3rd language as they moved from that country. I wouldn't listen to anyone who says stick to one language. Multilingualism has been shown to be good for the brain in lots of ways. X

What I meant is that in our case, 2 out of 3 languages are with me only. The father only speaks the country's language. So I'm wondering if I alone can introduce 2 more and how I can separate between these two when it's just me speaking them.