'Bilingual' 14 month old only speaking Dutch... What's going wrong?

[NorktasticNinja]

We do 1L1P and really never deviate from it, I'm at home with her 3 days a week but we live in Holland so all her other input is in Dutch.

DP and I always speak Dutch to one another so maybe we should speak more English together, it just always feels so strange.

She definitely understands me and she seems to understand English better than Dutch (but maybe that's projection?). Could it just be because she's been totally Papa obsessed for the last couple of months? Is there actually any hope of her becoming bilingual?

Oh, I'm definitely no getting stressed about it!

The impending 18 month age gap and DPs new business distract me from stressing about almost anything else

hi sorry i haven't read all the posts but in my experience most dutch people can speak a fair bit of english (must be some reason for that. and you must have noticed how they like to englishify their words) and my dutch cousins seemed to pick it up really easily from simply watching subtitled english cartoons and films. oh that and their lessons at school. maybe the language teaching is of a higher quality over there?

i wouldn't worry about about your dd's english especially as she has the added advantage of having an english speaking parent. she'll pick it up eventually.

oh just noticed how long ago you posted! hope things are going well on the language front.

Children may not learn to speak from the TV, but my DD has definitely learned lots of words and phrases from repeatedly watchinf DVDs. Especially if you watch them with her and discuss them.

My daughter is nearly 2 and speaks majority English with some French. apart from having French instead of English and English instead of Dutch, our set-up is analogous to yours.

Don't worry at all - at 14 months, any speech at all seems wonderful! It may be a bit early to "insist" she uses Dutch to you but certainly what you can do is repeat her English back to her in Dutch - so, if my daughter says to me, "I put shoes!" I used to say, "oui, c'est ca, tu mets tes chaussures!" and then moved onto "maman dit 'shoes', que dit papa?" My next step will be to start prompting her to speak French, probably by pretending not to understand when she speaks English to me (though only where I know that she can do it in French if she tries and obviously not if she's grumpy or distressed.) As a result of these strategies, she has an excellent receptive vocab in French and can produce some very good stuff on occasion.

I have always used a lot of DVDs (though "normal" stuff, nothing educational like Einstein. She has JUST started repeating stuff she has picked up from these DVDs.

Don't worry, stay realistic (ie it is normal that her Dutch will be stronger than her English because that's what she hears most of!) and work hard on every positive sign you get.

Good luck.

D'oh - only a year late ...

I just clicked on this to say my DD was the same at that age and all would be well. Now I see it's an old thread of mine. lol.

DD is now 2.2 and her speech is coming along very nicely, Dutch is still dominant (which is logical) but she's recently started using a lot more English.

She has a clear understanding in both languages but does tend to translate quite a lot. So, for example, I'll say to her 'tomorrow we're going to see Oma (Grandma)' and she'll spend the rest of the day running around saying exactly the same, but in Dutch...

I encourage her to use English when she's speaking to me and it is helping. A few weeks ago I told her it was very important to use English words, for some reason she's really taken it to heart. If I remind her to speak English to me she'll often say 'Mmmm, very important', before carrying on in the language of her choice. lol.

Good to hear your update Displacementactivity.

My dd1 is nearly six and I'm very happy with her english, even though her dutch is still her main language.

DD2 is four and unfortunately refuses to speak any english! I'm not pushing her; she understands everything I say to her.

Ds is 15 months and says just two words: papa and baba(meaning mama.

Thanks Belgo. Good to hear things are going well with your DC too. Your DS is 15 months already! Really?

yes 15 months - walking, running, climbing, spinning - he's still my little baby though!

We have raised two bilingual children. Norwegian / English.
I am from Norway, dh is Polish, and we lived in the UK. We did not press them on the Polish, but we speak English at home.

Even though we lived in London, DS1 was only picking up Norwegian. He went to an English nursery, and dh spoke English to him, yet he preferred Norwegian. He would reply to dh in very short yes no style sentences.

When he was 3, he was a very lonely child, as he still only spoke Norwegian. No amounts of cbeebies, books and films changed this. Then his brother was born. We got a polish au pair, and I started talking to DS1 in English rather than Norwegian, so the au pair should understand what I had said/instructed. He was confused at first, but within a month he had supressed all his Norwegian, and spoke like a Londoner!

For the next six months he refused Norwegian. It would come back to him slowly when visiting grandparents in Norway, but on the whole, he spoke English.

Ds2 did not pick up much Norwegian. Due to the aupair, and the language at home being English to a larger degree than when ds1 was born, he did not really pick up any Norwegian. When he was 2 we got a Norwegian Au pair, hoping it would help. Along with Norwegian stories, and films, we spoke Norwegian at home. He seemed to understand some of it at least, but would reply in English.

When ds1 was 6 and ds2 3, we moved to Norway. Ds1 picked up Norwegian and became truly bilinugal within a month. For ds2, who had never really known the language before, it took a little longer, about 6 months.

We have lived in Norway for two years now, and we are working really hard on keeping English alive for our kids. We watch bbc i player, read english books, watch english films, and talk english at home. So far it is working, but I have noticed ds1 is losing his london accent, and ds2 is making some really funny and creative grammar at times!

Dont give up! 14 months is still young, just expose her to English as much as you can, you cant really do more than that. Holidays to grandparents works wonders, too!

Thanks Quint! What a journey you've had! DD is 2.2 now (old thread bumped) and doing really well. I'm trying to convince her that it would be good if she starts speaking to DS (7 months) in English, but she just thinks I'm odd (nothing new there then).

I didn't know the CBebeebies iplayer worked outside the UK, that's fab. Or are you using a proxy?

Interesting story Quint - it just proves that bringing up a child to be bilingual is not always straightforward, but problems can be overcome.

As the main english speaker in my children's lives, I have felt a huge pressure to get them speaking english - pressure from my in laws and from my dh, who think that I am to blame for my girls not speaking perfect english. I have been very careful not to transfer the pressure I feel onto my children - no way do I want them pressurised into speaking english.

I think in my family's case, 1P1L is probably not the best way for my children to learn two lanugages, as the dutch-speaking influence far outweighs my influence, even with fairly regular if short trips to England.