What stage was your DC with 2nd language at 18 months???

[rafa]

Just wondered if anyone can let me know what stage their DC was at with the second langauge at 18 months. We live in the UK, DH is French. DD attends nursery 4 days per week and is with me one day so mainly hearing and speaking English. We do however make a big effort with French, DVD's , music, DH always speaks to her in French, trips to France every 2 months. So far though she cannot say anything in French although she does understand instructions in French. She has a really good vocabulary in English. Is this normal at 18 months in your experiences? Any advice/feeback appreciated.

That sounds very similar to my DD. English is her first language and although she was a late starter, she is now totally normal for her 3 years. Her Japanese, her second language, is a long way behind despite DH's best efforts, DVDs, books, music etc. She understands a lot and talks a little, but still lacks confidence. I have found that playing with friends who speak the second language has been the best thing. It makes them use it naturally without the pressure applied by adults.

It's much harder when it's the more absent parent that speaks the minority language so I wouldn't worry.

Understanding is great, speaking will come later but don't expect equivalent fluency in the 2nd language unless you are prepared to spend a lot of time in France, hire a French au pair, send your DD to a bilingual or French-speaking school etc.

In any case 18 months is young - none of mine had very much to say at that age, and all 3 are now bilingual.

Hello, my DS is 2. We live in Mexico, so English is the minority language. DS started talking early (at least I thought so, but what do I know?), at just about a year. It was Spanish words only (and only one or two words). Anyway, at 2, he can now form simple sentences in Spanish (his first being "the egg fell" as it rolled off the side onto the kitchen floor). In English he still just does words really. although, yesterday he told me that the "digger digging" so I feel he is progressing. He can however understand all I say to him without problems.
I think the development in the second language follows the same pattern as the first, but just slower. At least in the case of my DS anyway.

Do you speak French? Could you organise French only days at weekends to build her exposure? Stories in French?

Not very far - I knew she understood me, but she didn't really start talking any language until 2 and Dutch didn't really fall into place until she was 3. Sounds like your DD is doing perfectly well

Sounds fine. You could, if you wanted to, start prompting her - when she uses an English word, your husband could say, for example, "oui, maman dit "cup", que dit papa?" Or "Oui, c'est "cup" en anglais, comment dit-on ca en francais?" - just so her passive vocab starts becoming active.

You may also find at this age she starts to fixate on certain songs. If so, your husband could make a point of singing songs with her at bedtime as often as she likes and she may well start trying to join in (mini-MIFLAW is now 2 and enjoys, "meunier, tu dors", "alouette", "ah! vous dirai-je maman?" and "l'araignee Gipsy")

thanks everyone we will keep going with it. I am determined it will happen!! Its alot harder than I thought though

THAT definitely rings a bell, rafa ...

DD didn't say anything in any of her three languages at 18 months. Well, she had 3 words in total, I think.

Now at 4.5, she can talk your ears off in any of her three languages, so don't worry.

At about 2.5 yrs, she would say things like "Mommy ay, daddy moon, Anna lune" to describe how we all said "moon".

Same here CodeDAzur. We are juggling with three languages (mine, DH's and English). DC1 spoke very little and mostly in English until he was about 20MO and then all of a sudden he spoke full sentences in two languages (English and my native). His language development was clearly behind his little friends until he was about 2.5YO and from there on they seem to be pretty much at the same level in English. He is doing very well in my language too and I do feel that playgroups/-dates make a massive difference as he can practise with somebody at his own level.

He understands French too but speaks very little as his dad travels quite a bit for work. I'm not worried though because he naturally replaces the words he doesn't know in French with an English word and gets his point across. He doesn't mix the languages and we go through words in all three languages like you do " daddy says voiture, auntie says car, mum says..."

My DC were hardly speaking at all at 18 months. They were brought up speaking German/English in Germany.

They are now 5yo and 7yo and we recently added French when we moved to Switzerland.

Their German language skills improved considerably from the age of 3yo when they started kindergarten, then when we moved here just over a year ago they started speaking more English and are really fluent in English.

Their French is not yet fluent, but pretty good.

Don't worry too much, and try not to kick those who tell you how fab it is, and how easy it is for your DD to learn two languages from birth. It is fab but it is not easy.

rafa - do you speak French yourself?
If so maybe you could read DD stories or just talk in French about the pictures in English books.
Or have a cuddly toy that 'only speaks French' and play with it together for a while every day, making it 'talk' to you.

I think she's still young enough that she won't reject you doing that if she's only heard you speaking English up to now.

good luck