Bilingual Child Speech “Delay”
I have a 2.5 year old who understands everything you say to him (more or less when he wants to listen) but I’m not sure if our mother tongue is what is causing him to not be able to speak properly? I’m not sure whether he’s finding it difficult for him. My husband and I speak Polish to him and so does everyone else around him.
I asked him to say a few things in English and he’s repeated all the words I told him in English. What do I do?
How do I get past this?
He isn’t using full sentences yet and just names things as he sees them or when he wants something or he uses his own language to talk and I try figure out what he’s trying to say whilst using words he knows already.
What am I doing wrong?
What do you suggest?
Please and Thank you
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What he’s doing is perfectly normal for his age. The fact that he’s bilingual isn’t delaying him from my understanding. Having attended bilingual speech therapy courses, they say if a child has any delay it’s nothing to do with speaking more than one language. Actually the fact that he’s does show understanding and speaks when he chooses isn’t really showing a delay, it’s more just him choosing when he wants to speak and how, there’s not much you can do about that but continue to talk to him, having conversations with him until he chooses to converse back. My children are both bilingual, my son would barely say anything until he was around 2.5 years but my daughter has been having full on conversations about anything and everything since before 2. My little girl speaks in both English and Ndebele but my son still chooses to only speak English except when he really wants something and we ask him to speak in Ndebele then he will. Don’t worry too much, but keep encouraging both languages.
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