Bilingualism

When I work with children who are bilingual, one of the most common questions parents ask is whether teaching their child more than one language caused their child’s language to be delayed. The good news is, no, bilingualism does not cause language delay or impairment!

Research suggests that bilingual language development generally follows the same trajectory as monolingual language development, although bilingual children rarely have identical skills across both languages (Goldstein, 2006). When calculating the number of words a bilingual (or multilingual) child understands or says, you should include words with the same meaning in each language in your count. For example, if your child says “ball” and “pelota” (ball in Spanish), these count as two separate words in your child’s vocabulary. It is normal for children who speak more than one language to code mix (making sentences with words from both languages, for example, “eat uva”) and code switch (understand which listeners speak their languages and change languages depending on the listener).

For a long time, specialists told parents to use a “one-parent, one-language” model to teach their children more than one language. However, specialists now agree that this is not necessary. Families should speak whatever languages feel most comfortable to them!

If your family speaks more than one language at home, know that exposing your child to other languages cannot cause a speech-language delay or impairment. If you are concerned about your child’s language development, seek a speech-language evaluation from a therapist who has experience with bilingual language development.

This article from The Hanen Centre has great information regarding myths about bilingual language development.

If you still have questions, or want to schedule an evaluation, contact us!

Resources:

Bilingualism in Young Children: Separating Fact from Fiction. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2020, from http://www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/Articles/Bilingualism-in-Young-Children--Separating-Fact-fr.aspx

Goldstein, B. A. (2006). Clinical Implications of Research on Language Development and Disorders in Bilingual Children: Topics in Language Disorders, 26(4), 305–321. https://doi.org/10.1097/00011363-200610000-00004