Can learning 2 languages slow down a child's language development?

[Mumie]

Hello

We live in Switzerland and have a wonderful 12 month old (next week) dd. We speak English at home and she hears Swiss German in nursery so she should grow up learning both - at least that's what I thought. But a friend of mine commented on how dd doesn't really speak yet and said it's because we are confusing her with two languages. Just wondered if she's right or what other people's experience is in this situation.

I'm not overly concerned as I expect she will talk when she's ready - are children normally talking at 12 months? - but I don't want to put obstacles in her way accidently.

Hi Mumie, you are so lucky, my Mum is a French teacher so I am talking some French to my DS, one wk older than yours as I think he should learn languages as early as possible. My parents friends had there 3 sons in Kenya and they all talked well - it just took a while to understand them as they weren't sure if it was English or Swahili they were trying to speak! Maybe you could use some baby sign language as I could see how this could make your child frustrated. My DS has never said a recognisable word either. Just enjoy him

Just carry on 'confusing' her

I am doing the same with my daugther -
confuser-in-chief me - and it might
have delayed her speech development
(don't know, don't care: what difference
does it make if she speaks at 12 or 18 months?)
but she'll end up fluent in 2 languages.

Which does make a difference.

She started saying specific words at about 17 months
and is now picking up a new word every 2-3 days.
All in English so far.
Can't wait for her first German words!

So everyone seems to agree not to speak to dd in anything but our mother tongue - dh will be relieved as our German is not wonderful

She is in babygruppe 4 days a week and I think that should be enough for her to get good exposure to the language. I think partially I was worried that because I have not picked up German to the point of fluency that she might have problems at school later because her German is not as good as the other kids, so I thought it might help if we also spoke it at home. But you are probably right that German will become her dominant language so we need to keep up English at home.

I just hope my German is good enough to help her with her homework by that point!

mumie - i think you will find that in a few years time your dd will be helping YOU with your German homework : ) My mum and I both had to learn English and German as immigrants. I learned both as a child and teenager at school whereas mum had to learn them in her 30's and 40's. Guess who had an easier time ?

You daughter will be speaking fluent German with a native accent by the time she is in school full-time, guaranteed ! It is her English you need to focus on.

We are both German,though I speak English to him but he always answers back in German.
We go to English Playgroup once a week but no luck.He understands it all and if not he askes what it means.Any idea´s how I could encourage him to speak english?

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