Will a second language just confuse our toddler?

[Herts501]

My son is almost 3 and is only just starting to talk (this is being dealt with), his dad is of Indian descent and is fluent in Punjabi which we would like to teach our son.

My question is, should we wait to introduce Punjabi once he has made more substantial progress with his English? Do we run the risk of confusing him and delaying things further? Should we just be focusing on just English for now?

Thanks

No. The sooner the better. Ideally from day one.

Such a great thing for a child to learn his family's languages. Aside from the advantage from an intelectual and practical pooint of view, the bond with his father's culture, and his Indian family, will be much enhanced.

No. I'd expose him to both languages ASAP myself

From what I've read it is of benefit for a child to learn another language and will help with the learning of English too. The earlier the better. I also wouldn't 'teach' him it. He will pick it up if it is spoken at home.

Good lord, no, start now! Ideal situation would be from birth. But now is better than later.

My goodness, lucky boy! Crack on immediately. One parent, one language tends to work well.

No
One parent = one language each of you

https://bilingualkidspot.com/2016/10/07/opol-method-one-person-one-language/#:~:text=OPOL%20is%20exactly%20how%20it,%2C%20one%20person%2C%20one%20language.

I think I read somewhere that dual language children might start talking a bit later but then catch up and speak both

It’s an absolute gift your partner can give his son. My DH doesn’t speak his parents’ language but understands everything. And I think it’s given him an amazing facility for language as he speaks the language he learnt in high school extremely well and seems to have picked up a lot of another language out of nowhere.

But you have to be patient. Your partner needs to speak to your DC in Punjabi 100% of the time ideally. And understand he’s still picking up the language even if he only ever response in English (this is common). He should also try and see if wider family can speak in Punjabi around your DC.

Me and my husband talk to my daughter in our home language Pashto even though l am born here, l want here to learn our language as she will benefit from it. She has picked up so much already, we try and keep it 100%. It benefits them in the long run.

My kids speak both Punjabi and English, I'm glad I've taught them because sadly a lot of kids in our culture are losing the language.

Pressed send too soon but meant to say that we found starting them young actually worked.

Start now.
My 2 have never confused languages up (although I've only got English, and we live in England, so their English is by far stronger).
Bizarrely, it will probably help his language acquisition.

Start earlier the better. Might be slightly slower than one language, but will catch up and could be fluent in 2 by starting school.

One tip I've heard is to keep the 2 languages separate. One at home and the other outside the home for example. The idea being that it's easier to understand what words go with what language if they have their own places.

Start yesterday!

My daughter's father was never spoken to in his mum's language. Now she has dementia and has reverted fully to speaking only in her native tongue he can't communicate with her and it's desperately sad.

Both of my children have been exposed to two languages, a very handy side effect: when you're in the playground and tell them it's "time to go" in another language, they can't pretend they didn't hear you 😄

I'm bilingual and speak both languages to my children, as does DH. My experience of OPOL is that it creates a divide in the household and is often recommended by parents where only one is bilingual anyway.

No my kids had 2 languages from birth and a 3rd at 12 months when they went to crèche.

Hell no - it should have been done from birth so start asap.

My DD, 4, is surrounded by kids who are bi and tri-lingual from birth and is jealous.

One of the girls she is in childcare with who is trilingual isn't really a talker partly due to the lockdowns leading lack of socialisation but her younger sibling, who is just 2, has a motor mouth and talks to people in all 3 languages. (Children including young ones try a few words in each language until they work out which one you talk to them in.)

Luckily she also knows adults including lots of her cousins who started learning second and third languages as older children up to young adults.

She is now working out which languages more than two people she knows speaks. (She has just told me she wants to learn Spanish though according to her nursery she was trying out Arabic.)