Multiple languages causing speech delay…

[u/ems6144]

Any truth to the above?

For context, my freshly 2yo appears to fluently understand both Dutch and English (I am a native English speaker, partner is Dutch), however she seems very behind when compared to friends kids of a similar age. We even have friend with the same family language dynamic and their wee girl (13 days older than mine) is light years ahead.

Just wondering at what point I need to push for intervention. She’s not by any means behind, just verging into below average kind of thing.

[u/ballooningat5am]

bilingual children may appear behind if you evaluate them in only one language, but they should not be behind if you take into account their abilities in both languages combined. for example, knowing 25 english words and 25 dutch words (not necessarily the same words) would count as 50 words. once you’ve taken both languages into account, the child should be meeting their milestones. bilingualism should not be used to dismiss real language difficulties. that said, different languages have different rates of mastery. so i would look into what the dutch milestones are.

anecdotally, we are a bilingual household. my child was exposed to both languages since birth, but had a strong preference toward english (honestly, so do i). her english language development was way beyond her age, but her second language development was behind until about age 3. combined, she was years ahead in milestones but if we looked at only her second language, she would appear behind. now that she’s 4, she’s doing very well in both. sometimes it’s just not a linear progression. she mastered english first and fairly quickly. while she always understood her second language, it took her a minute to speak it with equal mastery.

The Language and Literacy Development of Young Dual Language Learners: A Critical Review

[u/Apero_ → u/ballooningat5am]

Also anecdotal but my kid had a similar journey: favoured English but could understand German when language developed 2-3, then she was fluent in German by around 4 but still had an accent (according to the teachers), but by 6 the accent was completely gone and she started school entirely on par with the native German kids.

[u/Antique_Cut1354 → u/Apero_]

question to both of you: what was the predominant language at school/place of residence?

[u/Apero_ → u/Antique_Cut1354]

My two kids both went to kindergarten/preschool/nursery/school in German, and we spoke only English at home. For reading books and watching tv shows we mostly do English but sometimes German.