Question for parents bringing up bilingual children...

[YRGAM]

... Which language was the first word in? My partner and I are bringing our son up with one parent one language, and the first word is causing some rivalry already!

I think it’s always something along the lines of “ma” “da” or “pa” because those are the first sounds little humans can make and that’s why the words for mother and father are similar in all languages.

Other than that I think it’s the language of the main carer that the child picks up first.

Funnily enough the words for mummy/daddy are nothing like ma or pa in my ohs language! So can rule those out.

We did one parent one langage. The first word is the first sound that one of you claims to recognise as a word.

Both kids' first word was our dog's name, so neither!

DS first spoke English but that's the language of both his parents. His second language is the native language which he didn't start speaking until he went to nursery when he was 1.

English at home, so he spoke English.
He started nursery at 1.9yo so started babbling in Spanish.
He started "school" (don't know what the UK equivalent is to P3. Anyone??) at 2.9 and started Catalan.
He is fluent in all three at 8yo.

English still at home, Catalan at school, Spanish 'on the streets'

Tried it and have put it aside for now. DS is 18mo. His first word was "dad" (thanks, mother in law!) and his second word was "nein" (thanks, other kids on holiday!) which incidentally, alongside "no", is still a favourite.

What I found is that he was becoming more and more frustrated by not being able to express himself. As soon as we started speaking English exclusively at home, he learned more and his speech has dramatically improved.