Speech delays in multilingual household (one parent speaking English)

londonparent321 · 2022-07-04T19:45:32+00:00

Hello Has anyone had children who have speech delay and know whether if trying to raise them in a bilingual household makes things worse? Also if anyone had a speech delay that in later years resolved itself?

CatherinedeBourgh · 29/07/2022 16:46

It's not uncommon for dc who are brought up with multiple languages to start speaking a little later than others, but it usually resolves itself with time.

ExpatInSlavikLand · 31/03/2023 14:19

Mine is definitely not picking up words as fast as I'd like, but I'm sure it's because she keeps hearing two languages - it's not surprising, though, since she needs to sort out the differences between two very different languages.

My friends' (also British-Slavic couple) elder daughter also took a long time to really start to speak in either language, but she is now 8 and a confident, happy, chatty little girl and a great reader, happily devouring 'Matilda' as I type!

It just takes time.

Original poster

londonparent321 · 15/04/2023 13:23

ExpatInSlavikLand · 31/03/2023 14:19

Mine is definitely not picking up words as fast as I'd like, but I'm sure it's because she keeps hearing two languages - it's not surprising, though, since she needs to sort out the differences between two very different languages.

My friends' (also British-Slavic couple) elder daughter also took a long time to really start to speak in either language, but she is now 8 and a confident, happy, chatty little girl and a great reader, happily devouring 'Matilda' as I type!

It just takes time.

Great feedback. The two languages here are also English/certain Slavic language - wonder if it's more difficult somehow with that combo!

OP posts:

Cuppaand2biscuits · 15/04/2023 13:27

Yes, my friend is French with a British husband they spoke in both languages to their first born but was eventually advised by health visitor to stop as it was delaying her speech.
They reintroduced a second language when she was about 5/6 years old and as a teenager she can speak fluently in both.

Parker231 · 15/04/2023 13:27

DT’s were appalling slow at learning English - our third language which is not spoken at home. They grew up in London and went to nursery there from aged six months but took ages to become fluent in English. It all worked out well and both graduated with 1st at Uni with all A’s at GCSE and A level.

Skybluepinky · 15/04/2023 14:33

They don’t start of slower but are normally caught up and have over taken their peers by the time they start school as they r fluent in more than one language. If u see a HV ensure that u tell them the child is exposed to multiple languages.

ExpatInSlavikLand · 15/04/2023 15:21

Let's face it, English and any of the Slavic languages are almost completely different, with totally different grammar rules, and there's a huge amount of TV and movies out there in English and very few in Slavic languages (especially my husband's), so it's unsurprising it's difficult for our kids to pick both up at the same time.

Don't even ask me how my attempts at learning the language are going, either 😂

Original poster

londonparent321 · 15/04/2023 20:35

Cuppaand2biscuits · 15/04/2023 13:27

Yes, my friend is French with a British husband they spoke in both languages to their first born but was eventually advised by health visitor to stop as it was delaying her speech.
They reintroduced a second language when she was about 5/6 years old and as a teenager she can speak fluently in both.

Fascinating - there is so much data these days saying if your kid isn't doing so and so by certain ages then get them checked out for <developmental disorder> but it seems like there's so much variance out there and a lot of the time things turn out fine

OP posts:

JustMaggie · 15/04/2023 21:03

I had a friend many years ago. She was Japanese and her husband was French. They only spoke in their mother tongues to their child and at nursery they spoke to him in English. He didn't speak until he was 3 years old.

TwoCoffeesandAMilkshake · 15/04/2023 21:05

Cuppaand2biscuits · 15/04/2023 13:27

Yes, my friend is French with a British husband they spoke in both languages to their first born but was eventually advised by health visitor to stop as it was delaying her speech.
They reintroduced a second language when she was about 5/6 years old and as a teenager she can speak fluently in both.

Very bad advice by the HV! And they were lucky she picked it up again.

SoCunningYouCanStickATailOnItAndCallItAFox · 15/04/2023 21:11

Yes, bad advice from health visitor.
It isn't a 'speech delay' it is just a longer learning curve because of the greater complexity.

My friend raised her children in a tri lingual house. Mum spoke her home language only to the children, dad spoke his language to children only and they spoke English to each other (as that was the language the two of them had in common).

All three kids took a while to start speaking, one more than the other two, but all three are fluent in the 3 languages now.

Can2022getanyworse · 15/04/2023 21:16

Perfectly normal for them to take a bit longer - they've got twice as much to learn!

Before long they'll be miles in front of their peers with 2 languages under their belts. Don't worry op.

reluctantbrit · 19/05/2023 11:13

DD. is bi-lingual (German/English) and it is rubbish to say that two languages will cause speech delay.

My pure English friend's DD didn't speak until she was 2 while DD was happily muttering about. Both were talked to, read to, attended English nurseries.

What a lot of professionals don't do is recognising the non-English words. So our health visitor once asked how many words DD was saying and added "in both languages". So DD saying Eichhörnchen instead of Squirrel counted.

While another bi-lingual friend had issues as she was told that her son had speech delay because he refused to talk in English but spoke clearly understandable German words as this was the language they spoke mainly at home, he swapped to English as soon as he went to nursery.