Patience Is a Virtue???? - Kew Gardens,NY

I would speak with the pediatrician, but I remember somewhere back in graduate school some statistic regarding bilingual children acquiriing language at a slower rate initially, but then catching up quickly and eventually jumping ahead linguistically!

It's worth a conversation with the doctor at his next appointment.

I have a weird family in that my children started speaking very early and we are a bilingual home as well. The dr's were pretty surprised.
If you have two languages going on in your house I think the norm is for kids to speak a little bit later.
Being patient sucks!
L.

I would get some early intervention services. He could benefit from it greatly---It could be as simple as getting your son's ear's checked. Sometimes that has a great effect. Good luck!

Every state offers a free program to evaluate kids birth-age 3. It costs nothing to have him evaluated and services are free (if he qualifies). We had our son evaluated at 18 months because he only had about 5 words in his vocabulary. He was two in July and he has passed 100 words. He no longer receives services. Some kids just need a little extra help.

I think the program in NY is called 'The Early Intervention Program'...
http://www.health.ny.gov/publications/0532.pdf

Patience and talk lots in one language first with the other language interspersed. We're Chinese/English. We made the "mistake" of picking English first, (English is easier.) so DS's first word was at 3 months...I talked his ears off every where we went. After that we couldn't keep track at the speed he was picking up new words. He could talk before he could crawl. He's a straight A, annoyingly smart kid; but can't speak Chinese. Only knows a few words, but not enough to get around. Our friends spoke Chinese first to their kids and they can speak fluent English and Chinese. We only had trouble with one teacher claiming the 2 languages was messing up the on kid's grade...Not really, he just needed a little extra help and to study harder like his sister.

I always recommend getting an evaluation because:

1. Its free
2. Its non-invasive. Someone will come over and sit on the floor and play with your child and ask you questions. and,
3.You will know for sure if you need to take action or just be patient.

They will also want to know if/when your child crawled and walked, if he shows any interest in drawing and feeding himself.

Best of luck,
R.

We used to joke and say that my lil man spoke "Nicoish", his name is Nico. No one else could understand him, but he could understand what was being said to him. It really did sound like he was speaking a real language, just one no one else spoke! I had him tested and was told that he was fine. I don't remember all the terms etc, but basically b/c he was mentally on track he would be fine. There weren't any cognitive delays. If it really bothers you, just bring it up at his check-up in October. At this age the doctor she try to speak to him anyway and that's a good time, in a non stress way, to try a quick assessment.

We speak three languages in our home and I would alternate between them. I know they say kids can learn multiple languages at once, but maybe that's really not the case? We backed off, just English for awhile, then I slowly added the others back. He did much better and didn't mix them up as much. So maybe his "Nicoish" was how all the different languages melded together in his head.

I agree with the others that say maybe just do your non English language for awhile, but make sure he gets the English before entering school or daycare. It will make things easier not only for him, but his teachers.

Good Luck!

It's my understanding that bilingual takes a bit more time for the words/language to come along.
My son only had English to learn.
He was only doing one word answers and then 2 months after his 2nd birthday he progressed to full on non stop constant chatter chatter chatter.
The only time he'd take a break was when he slept.
Be patient.
Enjoy the quiet for what little time you have left - you will miss it.

I would say 'intervention' only b/c it doesn't hurt anything to have him evaluated...whereas if you wait and your child did end up needing help, you would feel terrible and would have lost all that time?!

Patience -
He is processing two languages.
I have bilingual friends who have raised 5 children - They limited English until the children hit school age. But, I remember several of their kids just tongue tripping over everything and smashing both languages together - oh, and their 4th child - he just pointed at things for the first 3 years of life.
I would go with patience, and maybe try focusing on just one language (the non-English one) for a time.

Bonne Chance

We come from a bilingual home too. Our DS did not talk when he turned 2. We opted for intervention & I'm glad we did. Now he talks like any other kid of his age. :)

Intervention. Whether small or big, but definitely intervention. Talk to his pediatrician and explain what's going on. My kids are bilingual and were chatter boxes. Maybe it's just an ear issue, like "living life..." suggests below, but if it's ot, it's best to get a handle on whatever it really is. Good luck.

I'd say be patient. Most of my friends and relatives who are raising bilingual kids have said that both languages came more slowly at first. My one friend was freaking out because her 4yr old barely spoke. Turns out he didn't have to, his two older brothers spoke for him, in English and Japanese, and when the youngest started speaking, he was fluent in both.

I wouldn't worry yet - your little guy isn't even 2. A lot of kids learning only ONE language don't have a lot of words even at 2. My youngest barely spoke until she was 3 and we were NOT a bilingual household. And when she did start speaking, it was clearly, in full sentences with a pretty sophisticated-for-a-3-yr-old vocabulary.

Patience, for now.

Bilingual children sometimes take longer to speak depending on how both languages are being used in your household. However, most children will pick one language for their main one in the beginning. That is usually the language the child has the most exposure to hearing. Language development for bilingual children usually is not that far behind language development of a child in a monoligual home, even though they are processing two languages. Speaking fluency in both languages will occur sometime between the ages of 5 and 7. At two, I think your son should have more than 12 words in at least one language. I would recommend having him evaluated.

We are a bilingual family as well. Before my son was born, my husband and I decided the ground rules we would use in the house concerning language. My husband is Japanese, and I am American. My husband can speak English fluently, although his grammar sometimes reveals that he is not a native speaker. I can speak Japanese fluently enough to get myself in and out of trouble most of the time. We speak English together mainly. (We are currently living in Japan, and we have lived here for my son's entire life. So, English is technically the second language for us. )

We decided to only use our native language when speaking with our son. (I only speak to my son in English, and my husband only uses Japanese.) This is the best way to insure that your child will pick up native pronunciation and grammar in both languages. We read books to our son from a very young age. I was reading 15+ books a day to him when he was 6 months old. I read to him before every naptime and at bedtime. My husband read 1 or 2 books to him at bedtime only. Our son completely dropped his naps when he was 3. To keep the reading in place, we have a 30 minute story time daily, plus 1 or 2 books from me at night and a bedtime story from his dad. Reading to your child will build up his vocabulary, set the early stages for him to learn to read, increase his ability to focus on something...

How much did you expose him to language? I talked about everything to my son. I narrated what I was doing when he was younger. When he started speaking, I would often repeat what he said, and then replaced it with the word he was wanting to say. He would hold something up or point to something, and I would tell him. I tried to get him to repeat it back. I would ask him what things were all the time. For example: "Do you know what that is?" "That's a cat." He loved pointing to our cat. Does your son seem interested in communicating with you? If he doesn't seem to want to talk, that would be a clear indication that you need to get him some help.

Since my son spends the majority of his time with me, English is the language which he uses most of the time. Now that he is 5 years old, and in a Japanese only Sunday school class, he is starting to speak more Japanese with his dad. I am guessing that once he begins school, the Japanese is really going to take off. Bilingual children instantly know which language other people around them can and can't speak and adjust accordingly.

I don't know what route you took in exposing your son to both languages, but I would highly recommend only speaking your native language with him. Can he respond correctly when spoken to in each language? It's not too late to go back and only speak to him in your native langauge, especially since he isn't speaking much on his own yet. I would also start reading to him often. If you haven't read to him much, I would probably start out with 1 book at a time, and gradually increase the number of books. I also would try to get him talking about what is in the book. Ask questions for things he finds interesting in the story. Talk about the story and role play it too. All those things will help increase his vocabulary.

Hope that helps a little. The bilingual, bicultural family has double the troubles, but double the fun too!

I think patience. My home is not a bilingual one, but my son's nanny speaks to him in Spanish. I havent done a word count, but I've noticed that he practices the words and wants to master them before using them. The only intervention that I use is to encourage him to go ahead and say certain words aloud.