We are all English at home, DH and I are both native English speakers. We live in France, and both our kids are in the public school system here. My oldest, who is now 9, started speaking French around halfway through moyenne section (age 4) and his French is excellent (several of his friends parents tell me that, unless you knew otherwise, you'd assume he was French when he's speaking with them or his friends). My younger son is in grande section (age 5). In October his teacher flagged up a problem that he was not speaking any French with her, in fact he was totally reluctant to speak at all. She arranged some extra tutoring in school, plus some one-on-one time with a RASEED chap (he seems to be a general tutor for any kids experiencing any difficulties). After a couple of months of this, we were told that despite this intervention, he still wasn't making progress. He is a quiet, shy boy (with adults), and they didn't know whether this was holding him back. But clearly, after 2.5 years in all French school, he really 'should' be speaking it by now.
So we have taken him to an orthophoniste (speech / language therapist)... her diagnosis is not yet complete, but she has already told me that he has a slight language delay in both English and French, and that he's going to need some fairly intensive work with her to catch up before the end of the school year (he's meant to go into CP next year). She's more concerned though that he seems very reluctant to work with her, he's clearly not enjoying it and doesn't want to be there. So she's already suggesting that he may need some sessions with a psychologist to get to the bottom of that. She doesn't think that he's autistic, or anything like that, but she seems to think it's odd that he doesn't jump with joy to be doing the sessions with her.
For me.. I think he's shy with adults, he's getting a bit fed up being made to speak French with all these new grown-ups and being tested all the time. He's only met the orthophoniste twice, and I know from experience that he takes a while to warm up to people. In school, he's a dream pupil in every other way - he does what he's told, he works hard and well (his fine motor skills are excellent), he's got friends and plays with them happily, and his teacher told me last week that he's really coming out of his shell with her, speaking more freely etc. But there is a lot of catching up to do before CP.
Long story.. here's the question!
What can we, as non-French speakers, do to help him improve in French? We've been doing a lot more playdates with French friends who don't speak English, cartoons in the morning are in French, we try to read at least one book in French each night. And trying to be supportive, encouraging and all the rest of it.
My personal feeling is that he'll get it just fine, given time. But the system doesn't seem to want to give him time. And I'm worried that between us - school, RASEED, orthophoniste, home - we are actually going to put him off speaking French because he's feeling the pressure to perform.
TIA for any advice / been-there stories.