Bilingual Language Development: Myth vs. Fact

Fact or myth? Speaking multiple languages at home may cause a child to have delays in their speech or language development. Myth! This is a common misconception that affects many families exploring bilingual language development. According to ASHA, a significant share of children in the United States speak a language other than English at home. Some children may seem confused at first about differing grammar rules or code switching between languages, but this is typical for bilingual language development.

Learning another language in the first few years of life is ideal, thanks to the brain’s plasticity at that age. Here are some ways to support bilingual language development in your home.

Expose Your Child to Both Languages Consistently

Creating consistent opportunities for your child to hear and use both languages across various settings is key to developing strong language skills. This matters even more when your child can build meaningful connections with others in both languages while embracing their cultures.

• Read books in different languages together. Talk about the characters, pictures, plot, and sequence of events, and connect them to personal experiences.
• Listen to music and sing in different languages. Discuss the lyrics, introduce different artists, and translate the lyrics to understand their meaning.
• Cook or eat with family members who are native speakers. Name different foods, comment on the taste, and describe the steps of making the dish.
• Watch TV and movies in different languages. Many children’s shows are available in multiple languages, which can help teach topics like counting, letters, colors, and words across languages. Turning on subtitles also helps school-aged children connect both languages.
• Participate in language-learning programs, like camps, clubs, or dual language programs. These give children a chance to use their multilingual skills socially with other kids.

Avoid Mixing Languages Within a Sentence

Exposing your child to both languages is great for building vocabulary and language skills. However, while your child is learning to link words together to express their wants, needs, or ideas, hearing code-switching modeled can be confusing during that specific learning stage. To support language expansion and sentence formulation, avoid switching between languages within a single sentence. Instead, model a sentence fully in one language, then repeat it in the other.

Be Positive and Patient

Bilingual children may develop their language skills a bit differently. Many bilingual speakers have a dominant language, which can shift over time depending on their exposure to and use of each language. Be patient, and celebrate every attempt in both languages with positive reinforcement.

There’s a common trend in the United States where a bilingual child’s dominant language eventually becomes English rather than the language spoken by their parents. While that’s true, it doesn’t mean the child isn’t genuinely bilingual. Practicing speaking, writing, and reading in both languages helps retain both over the long term.

Support Your Bilingual Child With Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center

If a bilingual child has a speech or language delay, it will show up across all the languages they speak, and it isn’t caused by learning multiple languages. If you notice concerns with your child’s language development, we recommend speaking with your child’s physician for a referral to a speech-language pathologist for evaluation and recommendations. For more information about language development, reach out to our team, and let’s chat.