Bilingual Myths vs Facts!

Progressive Pediatric Therapy • August 13, 2021

Written By: Emily Marshall, MA, CF-SLP

Some children with language delays grow up in bilingual homes and communities. Often, parents have concerns that learning two languages might impact their child’s language delay.

Here are some common myths:

Myth: If my child has a language delay, I should only speak to them in one language.

Fact: Research shows that children who have a language delay do not have any additional difficulties when compared to monolingual children with language delays.

Myth: Speaking to my child in two languages can cause a language delay.

Fact: While bilingual children can have language delays, bilingualism does not cause delays itself. In fact, bilingual children are able to learn language and develop as quickly as their monolingual peers.

A woman wearing a face shield is playing with a child who is blowing soap bubbles

What can I do to help my child meet their language milestones?

  • Speak in the language you are most comfortable with! When parents speak to their child in their home language, they are strengthening the link to their child’s family, culture, and parent-child connection.
  • Talk, talk, talk! Children learn by example. Talking during meals, playtime, and routines provides many different learning opportunities. 
  • Add one extra word! Help your child build on their sentences and phrases by adding one extra word to what they say. For example, if your child asks for “more”, you can add an extra word to model “more juice” or “more ball”. 

If you notice your child continues to have difficulty learning language, contact us to schedule an evaluation with one of our bilingual speech-language pathologists!

Sources:

Spanish Translation

Algunos niños con retrasos en el lenguaje crecen en hogares y comunidades bilingües. A menudo, a los padres les preocupa que el aprendizaje de dos idiomas pueda afectar el retraso del lenguaje de su hijo. A continuación, se muestran algunos mitos comunes:

Mito: si mi hijo tiene un retraso en el lenguaje, solo debería hablar con él en un idioma

Realidad: Las investigaciones muestran que los niños que tienen un retraso en el lenguaje no tienen dificultades adicionales en comparación con los niños monolingües con retrasos en el lenguaje.

Mito: Hablarle a mi hijo en dos idiomas puede causar un retraso en el idioma.

Realidad: Si bien los niños bilingües pueden tener retrasos en el lenguaje, el bilingüismo no causa retrasos en sí mismo. De hecho, los niños bilingües pueden aprender el lenguaje y desarrollarse tan rápido como sus compañeros monolingües.

¿Qué puedo hacer para ayudar a mi hijo a alcanzar los hitos del lenguaje?

  • ¡Habla en el idioma con el que te sientas más cómodo! Cuando los padres le hablan a su hijo en su idioma materno, están fortaleciendo el vínculo con la familia, la cultura y la conexión entre padres e hijos de su hijo.
  • ¡Hablar hablar hablar! Los niños aprenden con el ejemplo. Hablar durante las comidas, el tiempo de juego y las rutinas brinda muchas oportunidades de aprendizaje diferentes.
  • ¡Agrega una palabra más! Ayude a su hijo a desarrollar sus oraciones y frases agregando una palabra adicional a lo que dice. Por ejemplo, si su hijo pide “más”, puede agregar una palabra adicional para representar “más jugo” o “más pelota”.

Si nota que su hijo sigue teniendo dificultades para aprender el idioma, programe una evaluación con su patólogo del habla y el lenguaje bilingüe local.

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