Raising a Trilingual 16 Month Old

Both of my sons are bilingual, Spanish and English. My husband only speaks Spanish to the boys and my 6 year old didn't speak anything for a long time, and then it seemed to happen overnight. He would go from Spanish to English in 2 seconds, depending on who he was talking to. He began to associate the language with a person and it was very amazing. However, my younger son speaks more English because I'm with him all day, whereas my first was in a Spanish speaking daycare. My pediatrician was never concerned, and was quite impressed with his ability to switch languages with a bat of the eye!
I would not worry, if he is 2 years old and still not saying anything, then I might look for a professional, but it's way to early.
Don't fret to soon he will be a very talented boy when he is just a little older and his brain "works" it out. I laud you for teaching him 3 languages! Stick with it!

Congratulations on your decision to teach your son other languages! Many people in your situation would just give up and speak mostly in one, giving the kids only partial exposure to the others. And by giving them all the languages, your also teaching them culture, traditions, heritage - the whole nine yards. It's really so good for them!
I'm raising two kids bilingual - I'm Polish, my husband is American. I know many other people who also do 2 or 3, so it's not uncommon and it IS possible! Hang in there. Some kids are a bit late to start talking in general, even if they only have one language, so I wouldn't worry for a while. In fact, my cousin barely said a word until he was 3, and at 5 he started talking up a storm and never shut up! :)
Here's a cool website: http://www.multilingualchildren.org/
Check it out - they have lots of advice and resources.
Good luck!

I am also Mexican who grew up bilingually and have a Turkish husband. My son is now 20 months and has about a 6 word vocabulary all in Turkish except "mami". He was born in Turkey and we have been here most of the time (we came after meeting in Chicago where I lived for 8 years). However my husband and I speak English to each other so he hears English too.

It is clear he understands all 3 languages as he responds to directions in all 3 (i.e. "ponte los zapatos", "bring the ball", etc.) It is a challenge but my mom who is a specialist in the area and I know that he will speak later, but speak all 3. He just has more to sort out in his brain - some children can learn 5-7 languages!

Your doctor may not be knowledgeable about this. So I suggest you listen to others who live in multi-lingual homes. I also used to teach at Telpochcalli school in Chicago and bilingualism as well as biculturalism is given utmost importance!!

Look for bookstores that carry Spanish books or order them online - there are many!! We also do reading time with books in all 3 languages.

Good luck!

I grew up trilingual and had a veryhard time starting off in school however, in the long run I bnelieve it was absolutely great for us all. We all pick up languages left and right and have an ear for vocabulary when no one else does. I love being able to communicate with lots of cultures and am a huge advocate of immersing kids in as many languages as you can, early on. And yes, they do learn to speak much MUCH later because of that. It is totally normal.

Try a speech therapist. Your Dr. if your child is not talking before 2 years of age will direct you to early intervention through the state. They will be able to answer many of your questions I bet. I have a freind who adopted a child from Mexico and he is having trouble with the 2 languages. Same thing, he was just not speaking although he understood everything. The speech therapists are very helpful.

M., I think you are right on track in teaching your son different languages. In fact, if you read this article i've attached, you are giving your son a head start in his development. This article written by Jeremy Hsu indicates that what you're doing is giving your son a learning advantage.

http://www.livescience.com/culture/090413-bilingual-smart...

A.

I also have children who speak 2 languages and they used a similar technique...my husband and I speak to our children in greek and to each other in english. Both children speak both languages and did not have delayed speech because of our approach. Your child may just not be ready to talk yet. I have freinds with children who spoke thier first words as late as 2 yrs old. Depends on the child. Some are quck with physical and slow with speech or the other way around. If you are concerned about the progress of speech, have him screened, but I am pretty certain that it is not because of language confusion. Good Luck!

Hi M.,

Please don't get too worked about the pediatrician. Our 2.5 year old son is currently bilingual in Mandarin and English. Like many multilingual children, he was late with expressive speech -- he started saying actual words around 17 months. By 12 months, our pediatrician was already somewhat concerned. I think pediatricians are generally on-guard about speech delays for two main reasons: 1.) because it is strongly correlated with autism spectrum disorders, which should be diagnosed as early as possible, and 2.) because the vast majority of our "normative" data on speech development is based on monolingual children. Anyhow, she recommended speech therapy through the Early Intervention program. We did speech therapy for two months, but then decided to scrap it (our income was too high to qualify for the sliding scale, so we were paying a flat fee every month and had to wait several months to be assigned a therapist). I was also disappointed that the therapists we worked with were not at all familiar with how to handle multilingual speech development or the linguistic research behind it. One of them even told us to focus only on English and remove Mandarin from his world -- which seemed totally counterintuitive to me. I finally consulted with a Ph.D. in linguistics who told me not to sweat it. The variability on language acquisition is extremely high across individuals.

Even though our son was late with his expressive speech, we continued to expose him 50/50 to English and Mandarin and his language acquisition accelerated immensely between 20 and 30 months. Now he has totally leap-frogged the kids at his age in his parent-tot classes.

In case you aren't already aware, all the linguistic research consistently demonstrates that children will end up speaking the language of their peers, not that of their parents or family. The same thing happened to me -- I spoke Mandarin primarily until I went to kindergarten at 4 years old. Then I switched to English, which remains my mother tongue. Nonetheless, I still think it's totally worthwhile to have children acquire multiple languages while they are really young and to foster that skill as they get older.

Good luck!
D.

Hi M.,

I have to reply to your post because the same situation happened to my son before. I am from Taiwan and my husband is American. My son was born in Taiwan but we moved to Thailand when he was one year old. I spoke Mandarin, my husband and expatriate friends spoke English, and the nanny spoke Thai to him. He didn't say anything except for occasionally 'da's or 'ma's. I was not very worried because I studied linguistics and have read some articles about this(I am sure you can find a ton on this subject). My son didn't start talking until he was almost 2.5 years old. Once he started, he couldn't stop! My first instinct is to tell you not to worry because it seems that your son is trying to figure out 'what to say to whom'! However, every child is different. If your pediatrician is worried about hearing or other things, maybe it not a bad thing to give him a call some time later. I will suggest that you observe what your son 'says' every day and see if what he 'says' somehow communicates something to you. Record what he says and compare each day's progress if you really worry. And again, there is a ton of literature on raising multi-lingual children; I am sure of it.

Best, S.

It is very common for speech to be delayed in multilingual homes. Your child is processing 3 languages at the same time. I'm American & my husband is Israeli. I spoke English & my husband spoke Hebrew to our daughter & she didn't start speaking in full sentences until she was almost 3 years old. Once she started talking, she didn't stop (be careful what you wish for). She's 7 now & only speaks English, but understands Hebrew.

I would believe that Early Intervention (which is most likely where your pediatrician is going to send you to for sppech) would have experience with bilingual or trilingual chidren. We speak only English, but our caseworker was bilingual and I know there a lots of kids in the program who have bilingual homes.

I do recommend getting services sooner than later for speech. Or daughter wasn't talking either at 18-mo. Early Intervention (Easter Seals) provided her with Speech and other services for only $40/mo (slidind scale) until age of 3. We also put her in a daycare which has a preschool and kindergarten (church based) and she has a HUGE vocabulary now. She just turned 3.

Good luck!

I did take my kids to Pathways (www.pathwayscenter.org) in Glenview. They do free evaluations and might have someone who's a specialist in multi-language kids. But I agree with you and other posters that you really need someone who understands your situation, not who is going to push your child to speak one language or another.

Just anecdotally (and I'm NOT an expert by any means), my kids go to a preschool where many families don't speak English at home, and most of these kids seem slower to talk, but by 3 seem completely caught up to me.

Overall, it seems like a bona-fide speech delay that needs therapy is harder to detect in a multi-language child, but that it IS common for there to be some kind of delay just because the child it processing so much, not because there is some other issue.

I have a friend whose trilingual son didn't say a word until he was 3...

M.:

How wonderful that you and your husband have 3 languages to share with your little boy! My Mexican husband and I speak to our now 5 year old son and 2 year old daughter exclusively in Spanish and they use English with my mom (who lives with us) and at daycare, where they receive Spanish as well. Like you, when my son was younger I would interpret the books in Spanish so he would hear more Spanish than I had books and once he was about 3 (and was conscious of the difference in languages from a visual standpoint) I would read the English books in English and made a point of searching out more books in Spanish whether via the Internet or the local library. Now at 5 he is quite the chatterbox in both languages. Our daughter joined our family from Guatemala at 2 years of age. She understood a lot more Spanish than she spoke but in a matter of 6 months has increased her vocabulary tremendously and her English is coming along as well. (We do notice that a lot of longer Spanish words she cuts off the first syllable - as you well know the words can be a lot longer :)

At any rate, what I am getting at is to just keep up the reading, music, etc. in all 3 languages as you are doing and you will probably find him using actual words closer to the 2 year mark and if not, I think you will still have plenty of time to have him evaluated and receive services if there is a need. As you have noticed, a lot of professionals do not understand bilingualism or multilingualism and therefore assume any delay is due to being "overwhelmed" by all the languages. When we first got home from Guatemala with out daughter it was assumed we would put her in speech therapy right away but I figured I would give her a chance to adjust first and assimilate the two languages and sure enough, while she may be a little behind I think she is well within the range of "normal".

We only spoke English at home growing up and apparently much like your son, I created my own little language so around 2 my mother had me evaluated by a speech therapist who said I would speak when I was ready since I did seem to understand what was said to me. And sometime during nursery school my vocabulary took off and now even my husband can't quiet the chatter :)

I am very passionate about this subject and would love to talk with you more so please feel free to send me a message off-line.

Take care,

L.

I wouldn't worry about it just yet. Many very bright children 'communicate' in their own little language at first. Some scientists believe that the brain is hardwired for language from birth- that the knowlege is in there and just needs to be woken up by hearing speech, etc. Others believe that the infant brain is a blank slate and that language is imprinted upon it from what they hear. Many scientists believe it is a combo of the two methods. Either way, your little guy is receiving three sets of info and sorting it out in his busy little brain!! If you are really concerned, take your son to see a speech specialist, not just the regular pediatrician. But other bilingual kids I have known were also slow to start speaking, but then suddenly burst out in full sentences, often mixing the two languages at first until they got it all sorted out in their heads. I'm sure your son will do the same!