Language development - bilingual son 2.4 years old

[yellowrose]

My son is 2.4 months and being brought up bilingually. We deliberatley do not speak to him in English in order to allow our native language to take root first.

However, he seems to have an excellent ability to learn English and has learned quite a lot just by watching cbeebies in the past few months

He can say the following:

1. Counts to 10 without any mistakes in both languages
2. Can say a few words in English (picked up from TV)
3. Can say up to 50 single words in my language
4. Can complete the English alphabet no matter where you start, so if I say E,F,G or L,M,N, etc, he can say the rest in the correct order (again picked up from TV)
5. Recognises and says the names for some colours
6. He babbles away almost non-stop, is rarely sitting still or quiet, always pointing at things, so fantastic with body language !

I have a friend whose son is also being brought up bilingually and says that at age 2.10 she has been told he needs to see a speech therapist as he doesn't say much !

So I am just wondering at what age your child (esp. if you have a son as I am told boys are slower with speech) was able to say more than one word at a time or full sentences ?

DS is a very very healthy, happy, sociable child, but just wondering about speech. I know that speech is not a sign of genius (apparently Einstein didn't talk properly until he was 4 !!)
but still curious to hear your experiences.

Thanks !

Hi yellowrose

It sounds to me like your son is doing fine!

Our children are being brought up bilingually, and have progressed at different rates (dd1 was quicker than ds2 for example).

We speak english at home, but live in Denmark, so they are learning danish at playgroup/nursery/school, and it is definitely now their first language.

ds1 did see a speech therapist when he was first at nursery (aged 3.6mths) because he coped with not knowing the danish words by speaking in a very high voice, and they felt he needed a bit of help to communicate with the other children. But he had not had much exposure to danish at that point , as we had only been in DK 6mths.

I would think that your ds will pick up English very steadily, and I think it is totally right that you are speaking your mother tongue with him at home - it is much less confusing for him if you use just one language.

What is your mother tongue BTW?

I am raising my 2 dc bilingually as well. The difference is that I'm Flemish and speak Dutch with them, while my dh is English and doesn't know a word of my language. So both languages are spoken in the house.
My ds (dc1) was much slower at speaking in proper sentences than my dd. He was 2.6 when he started making 2 word sentences and 3 really before saying anything more complicated. Now nearly 5 he's still not the clearest, but the speech therapist did not find any cause for concern. He also mixes the 2 languages a lot.
My dd has been speaking clearly and in lovely sentences for quite a while now and she's 2.9 now. She doesn't mix either. So clearly all children are different and they'll all get there in the end.
A very good book to read, that is really geared towards parents, rather than teachers and that helped me that both my children's development was normal ;), is: Growing up with two languages: a practical guide by Una Cunningham-Anderson and Staffan Anderson.
Hope this is of any help

Ladies - thanks ! Very helpful hearing your thoughts and experinces. The book sounds interesting will look for it on Amazon !

I too think it is early days. It must be more difficult for him as DS is an only child and does not have many other children to communicate with on a daily basis. But he doesn't stop trying, he is always following other chidren around in playgroup/playground and babbling to them, so his lack of language does not stop him from being sociable and confident, which I am very happy about

You're right. As long as your little one is happy and sociable than he'll be OK. Occasional trips to the 'motherland' and visits from grandparents help too.
Wish you lots of success

belgian