Hellobee Boards Topic: Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?

Hellobee Boards Topic: Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development? https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:07:24 +0000 Rubies on "Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-living-in-a-multi-lanuage-home-has-affected-your-los-verbal-development#post-595692 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:16:03 +0000 Rubies 595692@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We're in the same boat here! I spoke Korean and English (as did my parents) and my ILs would speak Cantonese and English to LO. She was behind in her words (as far as I can compare to other toddlers) but now at 18 months, she's learning so much at daycare and is in the midst of a verbal explosion. I had read that when a child is hearing multiple languages at once, it slows down verbal learning but it wasn't so much that I was too concerned. Mrs. Tiger on "Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-living-in-a-multi-lanuage-home-has-affected-your-los-verbal-development#post-595525 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:14:19 +0000 Mrs. Tiger 595525@https://boards.hellobee.com/ My LO is 18 months and has a huge vocab, and although my DH and I only speak English to him, my MIL(who watches him for a few hours every day) and other family friends speak to him in Tamil regularly.. He translates some things back and forth for us, like water/thanie :) so not exactly a 24-7 multi lingual environment but I don't think it's hurt him at all.. Don't worry! I also hate those weekly emails and have stopped paying attention to them. They drove me crazy because LO crawled before he sat up on his own, so he seemed super behind for a while! Maysprout on "Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-living-in-a-multi-lanuage-home-has-affected-your-los-verbal-development#post-594429 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:36:45 +0000 Maysprout 594429@https://boards.hellobee.com/ At 21 months we're still waiting for a language explosion but she says plenty in both languages that she's not behind. She doesn't separate them as 2 different languages though. My husband speaks to her mainly in French and I speak to her mainly in English. But she chooses french a lot so when I'm around I think I confuse her because sometimes I'll respond in English or in my butchering of french. I need to practice because I feel like I'm probably making things more difficult for the girl. mamimami on "Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-living-in-a-multi-lanuage-home-has-affected-your-los-verbal-development#post-594406 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:28:20 +0000 mamimami 594406@https://boards.hellobee.com/ At 18 months my son was slightly behind but we didn't worry precisely because of this. Then he had an absolute language explosion and I am so amazed by how he juggles two languages at two years old. Our pedi told us at three is when he'd start to "get" that each language was its own thing, but he seems to understand that pretty well already. He does speak adorable Spanglish though :) Mrs. Jacks on "Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-living-in-a-multi-lanuage-home-has-affected-your-los-verbal-development#post-594403 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:27:23 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 594403@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Oh I should say that studies have been done to look at speech delay in multilingual households an haven't substantiated any systematic delays. I know many pediatricians still say it and I know I have said it in the past. Freckles on "Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-living-in-a-multi-lanuage-home-has-affected-your-los-verbal-development#post-594393 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:24:18 +0000 Freckles 594393@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @Mrs. Pen: @Mrs. Jacks: I hate these stupid emails that tell you what your LO should be doing x # weeks. It only gets me stressed out! @PurplePumps: That sounds like an interesting video. I'll have to watch that later today! @.twist.: That's good to know! :) Mrs. Jacks on "Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-living-in-a-multi-lanuage-home-has-affected-your-los-verbal-development#post-594375 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:17:48 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 594375@https://boards.hellobee.com/ She's not behind! Typical development is one word by age 1 and two word sentences by age 2. Your LO is well within he normal range! PurplePumps on "Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-living-in-a-multi-lanuage-home-has-affected-your-los-verbal-development#post-594365 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:15:57 +0000 PurplePumps 594365@https://boards.hellobee.com/ This is a very interesting video about children learning languages, and the key time where they start to recognize sounds. <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies.html</a> Based on this I don't think babies can differentiate between different languages at that age. They are like a sponge and will hear the sounds and mimic whatever they hear. So if she isn't making many sounds yet, I don't think it would have made a difference if she were only hearing one language or 10, that is just her pace right now. Mrs. Pen on "Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-living-in-a-multi-lanuage-home-has-affected-your-los-verbal-development#post-594362 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:14:06 +0000 Mrs. Pen 594362@https://boards.hellobee.com/ i think 10.5 months is early to even be saying words!!! I don't think she's behind at all. My nephew is 18 months and is raised bilingual: he clearly understands both languages equally! He doesn't say many words but I think that's more his personality/personal development rather than his language. He still babbles a significant amount, he is quite "vocal". .twist. on "Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-living-in-a-multi-lanuage-home-has-affected-your-los-verbal-development#post-594350 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:10:24 +0000 .twist. 594350@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I don't know from personal experience, but I have a friend who speaks at least 3 languages and her native, her husbands native, and english are all languages that they've taught their daughter. She was a bit behind verbally, but eventually came around and now speaks amazingly fluently in all 3. :) Freckles on "Do you think that living in a multi-lanuage home has affected your LO's verbal development?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-think-that-living-in-a-multi-lanuage-home-has-affected-your-los-verbal-development#post-594342 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:05:00 +0000 Freckles 594342@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I speak Korean and English to LO (who is now 10.5 months) and DH speaks English (sometimes Cantonese) to her. She is pretty behind verbally and only says "umma/mama" and "baba". Our pediatrician doesn't think we should be concerned and that she may be developing slower because we're speaking all of these different languages to her. Do you agree? Do you find that it applies to your LO?