Parents of bilingual kids, any advice/shared experiences?

[gio71]

Hi
We are bringing up our 15 mth ds bilingual (well that is the plan). I speak to him in English, DP in Italian, we live in Italy so he hears Italian all around him, we have other English speaking friends, English TV etc. So far he says not one word! Is that normal? I get a mamma when he cries and thants it. FIL keeps making ominous noises about him being late to talk and it's because we are confusing him, he should learn English later blah blah! There is no way I want my ds to not be able to communicate in my language so FIL can do one as far as I'm concerned but was interested to know when other bilingual kids started speaking and if anyone has any advice?
Thanks all

FIL's reason was that he wanted to perfect his German... Seems pretty selfish to me! For WIW I know two other men who have stated that as their reason.

Children develop language at their own rate, whether monolingual or bilingual. My bilingual children spoke early and very well, dd in particular, but their motor skills were late in coming. My monolingual nephews have been early with motor skills but late with language- extremely late in case of youngest nephew who only started to speak intelligibly when he was 4. Nothing wrong with him, kids just develop at different rates. And 15 months is nothing. The important thing to look out for is if he doesn't seem to understand you at all, particularly as he grows older.

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Gio71, FWIW my sister lives in Cyprus and for her first DS both her and her husband spoke in Greek to him but her Greek wasn't very gramatically correct so DS1 now has to attend extra Greek lessons and his English isn't very good either. After advice from her doctor, for her subsequent DD and DS2 she spoke in English and her husband in Greek to them and they are both much more fluent.

very true what you say Pitchounette re not making a difference when they're adults (apart from in a positive way).
Well I feel well and truly reassured thanks all

Hi gio - As others said, you are not confusing him and it is normal at 15 months for a bilingual child to not have any words.

DD (2.4) is learning 3 languages at the same time and it is only in the last four months or so that her vocabulary took off. When 20 months, she had 16 words. Now she talks in sentences (made of words from 3 languages )

You are doing your DS a big favour by giving him the gift of a second language. A bit of patience and he will be speaking in no time