I've been told that children raised in bilingual families are a little behind in school at first, is this true

Answer 1

no each child is different and has thier own needs and wants.
as well as thier own set of brains.
every child is special regardless of race and who thier raised by

Answer 2

No this is not true. There are some who say this and have even tried to prove this, but it has no bearing what so ever on how a child does in school, they are actually advanced in certain areas because of the different traditions, cultures and language. For those who do not know, the United States DOES NOT have a specified "nation language" and their are now debates occurring to decide what language, if any should be named as the Nations Language. Though most would say it should be English, the truth is there are more who speak Spanish/ Mexican in the US than those who are fluent English. So most of those who say this are just trying to "deter" people from speaking any language that is not English. This is a very sad world when people are still condemned for simply being different. Personally, the Nation needs to realize that we are, for the most part, mixed- our families and ancestors come from many different countries, and thus the languages are inevitably going to mix as well. So to me, knowing this, it is just another form of control over a minority. People who do say this not only show their ignorance, they show they are, at least somewhat, prejudicial.

Answer 3

It really does depend on the child. I'm in Montreal, and my mother tongue is Spanish. I learned English very early on, but had to learn French in school. I adapted quickly even though I had never lived in a French environment. My sister who is younger had a lot more contact in her developing years with the French speaking world than I did, yet she had difficulty learning it.

I also did very well in school whereas she had difficulties at first. I do believe in her case it was due to the language barrier. So, it depends on just how fluent and comfortable a child is in either language. If they speak several languages but " the required one" is not fully mastered, than yes they might be slow at first, but if they truly are bilingually fluent, there should not be any problems.

Answer 4

I have heard the same...but have also heard that it depends on the primary language used in the home. It is never 50/50. If english is #1 the child is more likely to be on track, if english is #2 the child is more likely to be a bit behind, they usully catch up in 6 monhs to a year .
Also it depends on if all things like alphabet , writting is taught in alternate language. Speacking a second language can also stimulate brain growth

Answer 5

I don't know about all children, but my daughter is 6 now. My husband speaks arabic, and I speak english. She was behind for most of Kindergarten, but now she is ahead of every student in her class in first grade! She reads better than most 2nd graders. I think it is because at first the teacher has difficulty understanding her accent and words since she learned some of them from someone who had english as his third language, rather than his first, so she came out unclear at first. Now she no longer takes her speach class, and is a crystal clear speaker. I can only speak from our experience, so don't worry, if there is a problem, the teacher will certaily notify you of anything you can do to help!

Answer 6

I think what you may have heard is that children who have parents who don't speak English well even though the children speak English, and that children for whom English is a second language but one they haven't quite mastered yet, may be a little behind when they start school.

Generally, children from families who speak more than one language fluently benefit from that.

Answer 7

yeah, for me it was: i speak both french and english and i was a bit behind in 1st and part of the 2nd grade in math and grammar, but I don't know if language has anything to do with it. I think being behind can be influenced by many different things. But I am really good with languages (Spanish and German) and writing.

Answer 8

Not true...
They might be behind if they catch up some accent - and other people have difficulties understanding what the kid is saying. But in general, I've been hearing the opposite.

Answer 9

I'm a substitute teacher and I was working in a class with Hispanic kids. It was a native language literacy class, and the 1st graders were just incredible writers. I'm not sure if they do the same in English, but I was just wowed!

Answer 10

That does make sense. Knowing two languages in early development could cause confusion between the languages and they might mix them. I wouldn't worry about though, it would only be in the beginning and they would probably do really well later on.

Answer 11

not at all...
bilingual kids are already one step further for the future, instead of taking the foreign language in high school later.

I'm bilingual, fluently, and my kids are too. They are in elementary and are above grade levels.