How to Achieve The Best Success In a Dual or Multi-Language World!

Case 1. Darla joined our daycare when she was 2 years and 4 months old. She had no language skills whatsoever and in desperation her parents had taught her sign language. Sign language is a huge advantage for a child who has been identified as having a permanent impediment for speech. When it is used as a solution for a situation that has not been correctly addressed, it is an impediment for skilled verbal development.

She was living in a dual language home where the mother was speaking Italian and accented English and the father was speaking English with a few Italian words thrown in. In reality, they were speaking to her in three languages.

We immediately recommended that the mother speak only Italian and the dad would only speak English.

We were also reinforcing the English language at the daycare and as with all children, established an expectation that she would begin requesting and responding verbally.

After two weeks she began demonstrating a reasonable developed basic language and, not surprisingly, now understands that she needed to speak Italian to her mom. Four to six months later she was fluent in both languages.

Case 2. Oren joined our daycare when he was two and a half. At that point his life he was completely non-verbal and was demonstrating anti-social behavior that was possibly leading to a childhood of therapies and behavior evaluations that were mostly negative that may remain with him throughout his childhood.

We found out that he began his life hearing his mother speak Japanese and his father speak English. This was obviously a good start. However, when they decided to place him in a daycare we had no space available and they selected a location where the caregivers and children spoke Spanish. AS time passed they became aware that the caregivers were also speaking heavily accented English and by the age of two, he was totally non-verbal.

Because they felt it would improve the situation, the mom began speaking English which would stimulate him to at least speak that language. The reality was that because she spoke heavily accented English, she was in fact introducing him to yet another language.

Everyone began to see signs of aggressive and non-verbal behavior that was leading the caregivers to believe that he would need a professional evaluation to determine what his condition really was.

When the parents were contacted by use because there was now an available space at our daycare, upon hearing the details of his experience, we initially concluded that by communicating with him in five different languages he had been isolated from his world, was angry and frustrated, and was acting out physically since he was unable to communicate verbally.

We recommended that the parents go back to only speaking to him in their native language and we would only speak English.

Within a month, he was listening to us, starting to follow the rules, interacting with the other children in a non-aggressive manner, and in fact, beginning to be educated and socialized. He was also beginning to communicate in the English language, which is the one he was hearing the most.

We really encourage that there is a strong possibility these previous circumstances were the cause of the anti-social behavior.

Case 3. Maria join use when she had just turned two. She already understood and spoke Farsi (her mother’s language) and Portuguese (her father’s language). She had never been in an environment where people spoke English.

It was the parents’ goal to introduce her to English. They had been traveling a lot because of their business and were now ready to remain in LA for at least a year.

She spent the first two months just listening and trying to figure out what we were all saying. There was a pivotal moment when she realized she understood some of the basic words such as milk, hungry and food. We actually saw a light go on in her eyes and a smile of understanding appeared.

It was amazing from that day how quickly she picked up the language and to our surprise, spoke it without an accent.

It was exciting and rewarding that within six to eight months she could communicate her needs and understand everything we were telling her.

Conclusions

Over the many years we have operated our daycare we have had hundreds of children who came from dual language families.

Living in Los Angeles we are interacting with families from all over the world and ones that have blended cultures that value different languages.

The majority of families involved one parent whose primary language was English because most of our families joined us when their child was in their first year. They followed our advice to have each parent speak their primary language only at all times.

Interestingly, we were obviously reinforcing the English language at our daycare, but the child tended to speak both languages almost simultaneously.

In all cases, a child learning two languages became proficient at a slightly older age than a child learning only one language. Our one language children were proficient at the age of two, who the dual language child reached that level with both languages in most cases three to four months later.

I think it is a huge advantage for a child to embrace and benefit from, as well as acknowledge the uniqueness of both cultures that they have been born to our brought into. It is a strange, adventuress and invaluable opportunity.

If these case studies are reflective of your experiences, embrace the challenges and give your child the benefits of what is unique, interesting, and life altering.

For all of you who are taking this path, good luck!