bilingual toddler, help

[belma]

Hi, everyone, anyone out there with bilingual toddler, please help. I have beautiful 2 year old girl, who is not saying much at all, we are bilingual family, speaking English and Croatian at home, we speak both language to her, she understands absolutely everything, does everything, but gets very frustrated when she tries to say something, she does not repeats words after me, but will use the same word sometimes days later. Her vocabulary consists of around 60 words, that is combined between English and Croatian, is this along normal lines? should she be saying more? should she be joining the words by now? Again her comprehension is very good, she is very bright, but why wont she speak? I am very tired and lately tearful cos of her frustration, she points and then grunts if she does not know the word, If I do not get it quick enough whole hell breaks loose, please help.

Zdravo Belma

There is an excellent topic area on MN (here) and I know that there are tons of posts from parents with similar concerns to yours. Have a browse through and you'll find you are not alone.

My DS is five now and speaks three languages (one of them almost the same one as your DD's second language). He also went through exactly the same phase as your DD at that age. The main thing is not to worry, compare with other kids, and especially not to have massive expectations of a child or 2 years old. They always get there when they are ready.

And she will be speaking like mad soon enough! I look back wistfully some days at the time before DS could give me backchat in one of 3 languages!

I wouldn't worry too much at this stage.

Keep using both languages. Keep each language in context e.g. one language at home and another outside the home or one parent use english the other croatian.

This will help your dd be less confused about which language to use and perhaps give her more confidence to try to say things.

It's good to look at what she is saying as a whole i.e. both languages together as she will probably be not that different from many others her age.

As wellies says, she'll be talking non-stop soon

My children are bilingual. They did mix up the languages to begin with, but by the time they were about 4 they were fine, and could translate from one to another without confusing the two. Don't try to force her to speak - it will all fall into place. It is less confusing if one parent speaks one language and the other speaks the other IYSWIM. I helps them to differentiate. (IME)

Obviously others may disagree, but this worked for us.

Agree with everybody else, she'll be fine, far too early to worry

Thanks to all of you, posebno to wellies and pyjamas, very helpful, I feel much better, now both me and my husband talk to her mostly in Croatian and in the nursery she will hopefully learn English, my question is this, should we exclusively speak to her only in Croatian at home so not to confuse her? Under no circumstances mix the two? Also, how you all feeling about speaking mother language in public? I can sometimes feel bit awkward about it, people sometimes give me this look, maybe I am being paranoid blush

I know that the Hanen foundation (speech charity) recommend that you either go for a

"one place, one language"

or a

"one person, one language"

approach.

But don't mix them up.