If a mother speaks 2 languages to her baby, does it delay its speech?

Answer 1

In some cases it delays.........only by a few months.

In most cases there is no delay.

Whether delay or no delay......... the result is good. A baby with two mother-tongues becomes more intelligent.

Answer 2

No not at all. I know a deaf mom, and her daughter started signing VERY young, and soon after was speaking as well. Also, another friend of mine is bilingual, and her son speaks both spanish and english. The first 4 years of life are the best for learning languages. If a child is exposed to foreign languages in those first years, they will be much better at learning more languages later in life, and will also be able to speak with the true accent of the language, something that NO one can do unless that language was spoken around them when they were little.

Answer 3

I don't think so...My mother is french and my father is english so I learned at a young age two speak both languages. I also work at a daycare where some of the kids have english mothers and french fathers or vice versa and I don't find any problem with their speech. I think it's great for a child to learn more than one language.

Answer 4

Your baby`s brain responds and develops according to the way it is stimulated. The more colors, sounds, images and experiences he is exposed to the faster he will show motor, social and speech abilities. If mom mixes the two languages as she speaks, baby will learn to do so as if it was one language. If mom speaks one language in full sentences at a time, baby will learn two separate languages. Delay speech? Not a chance!

Answer 5

Some times it can delay speech however you may want to start the primary language first than incorporate the second language. My daughter speaks two languages and she is only five.

Answer 6

No. Not at all. Do it by all means.

Initially your child will be a bit confused. But the long-term benefits are manifold. The brain cerebral cortex will have more complex connections in both left and right memispheres. Normally speech is controlled by left brain. But toggling between two languages takes the help of right brain also. This makes people more creative.

Your child will only grow up super-intelligent. Many scientists have tried this, and got results.

Answer 7

It shouldn't, especially if you keep in mind that the baby knows X number of words from one language as well as Y number from the language you're comparing her to others in, if you know what I mean? If she knows 20 words in English and 16 in French, that's MORE than one who knows 30 in English (even though a couple may be the same word).

Eventually, they will be way ahead of the game.

Be as consistent as possible in distinguishing the two languages, say one in the house and the other outside, or one when Papa's there and the other when he isn't, or even one in the morning and the other in the afternoon--but something that will give the child a good balance of the two (which also depends on things like where you live, whether she goes to daycare, etc.). I think alternating sentences or even words "this is an apple, c'est une pomme" must be more confusing than helpful...I'd keep at least a given conversation to one language. (We have it easy, one parent one language)

Answer 8

Absolutely not. In fact I think it would make baby smarter. It is easier to teach a small child languages than an adult or older child as the small child has very little influence by other educators while an older child or adult has been learning and blocking their mind with the different rules and guidelines of their language. Older children and adults worry about failure and may be embarrassed or trying to hard or are just not as open to learning as a smaller child who is like a sponge absorbing everything around them. I was penpals with a 5th grader in Italy that spoke i think like 5 languages fluently(italian, german, english, french and an african dialect).

Answer 9

It's wonderful to teach your child to be bilingual. The child ends up being able to speak both languages without an accent in either. My mom is a speech pathologist so I've asked her about this in the past. She says its important to expose the children to all the words they learn in both languages, she was describing an item to a bilingual child to have her come up with the word once (the word was onion) and the girl (a first grader) had no idea what the English word was.

Answer 10

We have had that happen - French mother, English father.... the initial years may show some delay, but they do not take long to sort that out and generally have stronger language skills.... by the end of elementary school usually...

Answer 11

No, but the child will mix the two languages together - I had a teacher who raised her kid speaking English and Spanish. She said every other word alternated languages (almost). He was 2 or so at the time.