https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Wed, 06 May 2026 18:12:40 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bilingual-baby-question#post-1384179 Wed, 29 Jan 2014 11:43:20 +0000 Elderberrygin 1384179@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thanks for the reassurances, ladies!</p> <p>@looch: Yes, its tricky having her learning to speak primarily in a language neither DH or I speak. I can read Spanish pretty well, but my speaking and listening skills aren't great. Certainly not good enough to guess what something might be when an 11 months old says it. </p> <p>Keeping track of sounds makes sense. She babbles away constantly and can say all the vowels, and most of the consonant sounds at the moment. I'll keep listening out to see where she's at with that.</p> <p>@lamariniere copying and following instructions are what had me a bit concerned. She doesn't directly copy what we do or say, but she's on track with milestones. So, I'll clap and she won't clap back. But a couple of minutes later she might start clapping while she's playing. Same sort of thing with sounds. The only instruction she'll follow is "find monkey," but she's obsessed with that darn wubbanub anyway, so she probably spends fifty percent of her waking time hunting for him anyway. :-P But I get the feeling that not following instructions is a lot more to do with her, uh, determined personality. (Stubborn like her mama.)</p> <p>Anyway, I'll just chill out and observe until her appointment. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bilingual-baby-question#post-1383189 Wed, 29 Jan 2014 07:19:38 +0000 looch 1383189@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This is tough, because you don't speak the second language, so you don't really know what the words or sounds are. BUT what I would suggest instead is to keep track of the sounds that your child makes. When a child has a speech issue, regardless of the languages, they have trouble making the same sound across the languages. So while my son knows colors in three languages, he can not make the "l" sound in any of them.</p> <p>Does that make sense? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bilingual-baby-question#post-1383118 Wed, 29 Jan 2014 01:59:45 +0000 lamariniere 1383118@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Sounds fine to me. We are a bilingual household and DS is learning a 3rd language at daycare, but didn't start until he was 2. (He's now 3). At 12 months he had one real word and tons of sounds, but definitely understood both languages and could follow instructions. By 15 months he added about one new word per week. By 18 months it was a language explosion. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bilingual-baby-question#post-1383086 Wed, 29 Jan 2014 00:42:51 +0000 birdofafeather 1383086@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>my LO only has 1 language and she has no words yet! it's definitely something i was wondering about but my ped said it doesn't really take off until 1.5-2.5 years!</p> <p>ETA: my LO just turned 1! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bilingual-baby-question#post-1383078 Wed, 29 Jan 2014 00:29:18 +0000 googly-eyes 1383078@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I agree with @baby boy mom and I would tell the pedi those examples. One year olds typically don't have a ton of words and I don't think dd really started copying me til a little after a year. Or at least it wasn't so obvious. She'd respond but her sounds didn't sound like what I said. If the teacher's suspicions are correct about those examples it sounds like she is totally on track and even better, learning another language! :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bilingual-baby-question#post-1383077 Wed, 29 Jan 2014 00:26:53 +0000 Baby Boy Mom 1383077@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would say to tell the pediatrician exactly what you just wrote out! :) From your description it doesn't sound like you need to be worried. We're raising our kids trilingual and sometimes the processing just takes longer. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bilingual-baby-question#post-1383063 Tue, 28 Jan 2014 23:57:28 +0000 Elderberrygin 1383063@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This is a slightly odd situation. DH and I both speak English. LO attends a Spanish speaking daycare. (Its a long, not very exciting story.) She's coming up to her 12 month well baby visit and I'm trying to figure out where her language acquisition is at. </p> <p>Her receptive language seems okay in English. She definitely looks around when we ask, "Where's Mum?" "Where's Dad?" or "Where's monkey?" (her wubbanub) and keeps looking around until she finds what Mum/Dad/monkey. She babbles a lot and puts together strings of different consonants and vowels. She's very socially engaged but doesn't copy sounds we make. I suspect the lack of copying is more to do with her personality but I'm keeping an eye on things. </p> <p>We've noticed her making a few sound combinations pretty consistently and DH asked her teacher about them today. She says what sounds like "A-bwey" when she's reaching for something she wants us to give her. Her teacher said that's probably "Agua" and thinks she's copying the kids who want their sippy cups and is interpreting it as "I want..." instead of "water." The other consistent sound is, "Goy." Her teacher thought that was her copying "Voy" (I go.) </p> <p>I'm not sure what I should be counting as a word at this stage. I'm not super worried about her language skills. She seems a little bit behind, which I assume isn't unexpected given that she's being raised bilingual. I'd just like to have an accurate picture of where she's at.</p> <p>Anyway, I guess I'm wondering what to tell the pediatrician about her language acquisition. Do I count the sounds she's making consistently that her teacher thinks might be Spanish? Should I be at all worried? </p>