bilingual toddler, mum concerned

[belma]

Hi, everybody, my daughter is 2.8, she only just started putting three words together in Croatian, but in English is still very much singular words thing going on, I do not know is this OK for her age, should she be saying more in both languages? Her comprehension is great, she understands everything in both language, quite complex commands, she knows all of the alphabet, recognize all of the letters and say them as well), she knows all the colours and say them in both language, she can count in both languages up to ten and she is fully potty trained. When she does speak, she is often incoherent to others except to me and my husband and I can't help but feel sometimes ashamed in the park or other social places when other mothers can't understand her. Intellectually I know she is perfectly sound, but why is it that her language skills are so behind or are they? Also to mention, her drawing skills are quite ahead, she can draw a full face with ears, eyes, nose, mouth, hair, this was actually pointed to me in her nursery by one of the nursery teachers, as being something of almost amazing achievement for her age. She is also very spirited,having a hurricane for temper, stubborn till the end, she just does not budge, often it takes a lot of convincing to try to talk her into something. Question is: should she be saying sentences that are more understandable to onlookers, should her pronunciation be better?, when should I start worrying? thanks, any help much appreciated.

Do you speak Croatian all the time to her?
How much English does she hear?

Presumably she'll be going to an english speaking playgroup/school when the time comes? If so her english will be just wonderful - but it may come fluent a little later than her croatian.

IMO what is important is that she becomes fluent in one language - and that sounds as though it should be Croatian - and she is well on the way to that if she is doing 3 words sentences.

Her understanding is more important - and as that is good in both languages I'm sure you can afford to relax and not worry!

Sretno!

Yes, I speak to her in Croatian almost 90% of the time, three half days she in the nursery with english speaking children, also she hears English on tv, when she watches children programs.

It's quite difficult to answer this kind of worry without meeting the child but she sounds pretty much within normal limits to me. this website agrees It also sayss on another part of the site that it's quite common for two year olds to be difficult to understand If you are concerned at all ask your health visitor or GP to refer you to speech and language therapy. There are lots of bilingual children in the uk and depending on where you are they may well have translators available.

I wouldn't be too worried though. If Croatian is her main language and she's only exposed to English through another parent/caregiver and doesn't go to nursery or have any other exposure to English then this would mirror what my daugther (3yrs) does in her second language. She speaks predominantly English, but understands both languages equally. Uses some words of her second language, and mixes a bit, but at most only uses it 20%ish of the time.

hej belma!ja sam iz hrvatske,kako si?od kuda si? ja imam dvoje djece,cura(skoro 4) i decko
(2 1/2).pricam im hrvatski,80% vremena.cura razumije sve i takodjer mjesa,decko razumije skoro sve.ja se osjecam krivo jel im ne pricam hrvatski stalno,mislim da je to zato sto ja nazalost nemam s nikim pricati,sve se moje prijateljice vratile u Hrvatsku i mislim da nakon 7 godina u UK,engleski mi je tecniji!

thank you all, I will try not to worry and relax a bit more about the whole thing, I just love her to bits, after all she came after ten years of trying, so I guess I just want her to be perfect and ex-ell in everything that she does. Some days are better then others, sometimes I can't be even bothered to worry, I just want to enjoy her just the way she is and sometimes is not so easy to be so laid back. We live in a small village in a beautiful english countryside, where there are not many non english speaking people, so I guess on some level it is me who gets uncomfortable trying to reason with Emi in the middle of playground in Croatian and probably making it sound lot worse in my head then it really is.

She'll be fine, just give it time.
Don't feel uncomfortable about speaking Croatian to her when all around everyone else only speaks English.
Don't ever feel embarrassed about it.
After all what is more important - what other people think or that your lovely daughter learns your language?

zdravo B1084, evo kao sto vidis mali dosadni problemi oko djece, ako pricaju puno sto pricaju toliko? ako ne govore opet problem, nemozes pobijediti, citava ova teorija oko dvojnog jezika, meni je jos uvijek nejasna, samo znam da moram sa kcerkicom govoriti hrvatski, jer to jedino cini smisao, to je moj i njen maternji jezik, ali u isto vrijeme mora ucuti i engleski, eto tako se covijek nade u sredini nejasnog, pa mora pitati pitanja potpune strance. Inace smo iz Sarajeva, muz je Hrvat s mora iz Brela, javi se jos.

Thanks shitemum you are kind, yes you are right, she has to learn her mother-tongue it is imperative, but at same time she needs to know english, marrying the two in young child can get the knickers in the twist more often the not

She lives in England so you don't need to worry about her English. Concentrate on the Croatian.

My DDs were both born in Spain. They are now 5.6 yo and 2.6 yo. I am Scottish and DP is from Peru but speaks very good English. We have always spoken English at home to each other and the DDs.
I have really worked hard at making sure they learnt English. Both DDs started full-time Spanish-speaking nursery at the age of 2.
DD1s English is as good as native and her Spanish is pretty good but she makes some mistakes as she only really speaks it at school.
DD2s Spanish is coming along faster than her sisters did at the same age as her sister often sings in Spanish or decides to speak Spanish for a specific game at home.

We are moving back to the UK soon and so have decided that DP should start to speak more of his native Spanish to the DDs and that he should probably try and speak nothing but Spanish to them once we are there. We will also be seeking out other Spanish speaking families and activities and hopefully will come back to Spain for visits.

Anyway, don't worry about your DD's language skills, just keep talking to her and be consistent, don't lapse into English with her because you think it'll help her. Soon you will wonder why you ever worried , I promise.

Belma,ja sam Koprivnice(Podravka).Tvoja cura bas zvuci ko moja;tvrdoglava,zna sto hoce...
Totalno te razumijem kad kazes da ti je neugodno pricati hrvatski kad si vani.i meni,pa pricam potiho ili engleski,znam nije idealno.ti barem zivis(tako mi zvuci)u lijepom djelu,pa pretpostavljam imas dobre,ljubazne ljude oko sebe koji nisi ignorantni pa ne brini!ja u drugu ruku nisam u tako dobrom djelu(malo izvan Londona),puno
pravih engleza koji bulje u mene jer izgledam drugcije(ne hodam sa cigaretom u ustima,ne nosim velike zlatne nausnice itd.znas taj tip!).

Draga, B1984, tvrdoglava je malo reci, ima volju od celika, stalna borba izmedu nas, mnogo smo slicne, sto se tice pricanja hrvatskog, evo citas ove komentare ostalih u principu bi i ti i ja sa djecom trebale govoriti samo hrvatski, bez obzira na ljude oko nas. Na umu nam treba biti samo jedno, a to je da im dajemo dar dva jezika i da je to u biti privilegija, nemoj govoriti tiho nas jezik je lijep i zvuci kao pjesma i sto im budes vise pricala oni ce ti odgovarati na hrvatskom a to samo od sebe je vrijedno truda. Ja od sutra ne marim vese ni za koga, od sutra samo hrvatski, ako u drustvu engleskih prijateljica rado cu im prevesti sto sam Emi prijethodno relka, Mi smo u Essexu deset minuta juzno od Cambridga, gdje ste vi?