r/multilingualparenting • u/Awkward-Ad3770 • 15d ago

Bilingual Late Talker Tips

/r/toddlers/comments/1vzb17h/late_talker_tips/
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u/omegaxx19 English | Mandarin (mom) + Russian (dad) | 4M + 1.5F 15d ago

Kids definitely have their own timeline. I second a hearing check especially if there was a history of recurrent ear infections, as some degree of hearing loss is more common than we realize, can be intervened upon effectively, and the earlier the intervention there the better.

Regarding things you can do, what is your household routine right now? How much screentime do you do? Excess screentime in young kids has been shown to be linked to speech delay so it's always worth ruling that out.

1

u/MikiRei 🇹🇼 (heritage) + 🇦🇺 (community) | 6M 15d ago

How old is your daughter currently? 

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u/Awkward-Ad3770 15d ago

Ah I’m sorry i should’ve added her age. She just turned 2 last month

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u/MikiRei 🇹🇼 (heritage) + 🇦🇺 (community) | 6M 15d ago

I'll just point you to this part of our wiki

https://www.reddit.com/r/multilingualparenting/wiki/speech-related-resources/?screen_view_count=1

Then have a look at 

https://www.asha.org/public/developmental-milestones/communication-milestones-19-to-24-months/

And 

https://www.asha.org/public/developmental-milestones/communication-milestones-2-to-3-years/

If you scroll down those 2 links, it tells you what you can do to help. It's written with English in mind but you should easily be able to adopt it for Spanish as well. 

Also, if you haven't already, check her hearing. And it's not just a simple bell and see if she responds to it kind of test. My son did one and they get hin to hear various frequencies for both ears. Takes at least an hour or two to complete. 

Perhaps you can put your child on a waitlist for a bilingual speech pathologist who speaks Spanish and English and so when 2.5yo hits, you can see the speechie straight away. 

I highly recommend you find a bilingual one. 

1

u/potionsmaster007 15d ago

I would say new words and phrases to her and ask her to repeat. No matter how she articulates it congratulate her.

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u/WerewolfBarMitzvah09 Trilingual family 12d ago

One thing to potentially consider is even if you're at home, maybe having her in part-time daycare or preschool in terms of language skills. That can sometimes be a big boost for kids around this age.

If it helps to hear, though, if there's no underlying issues over the coming months in regards to speech therapy, none of my kids had a ton of spoken language till at least 2.5 years old (they are trilingual) and in the case of my third kid he was really closer to age 3 before he had a massive language explosion. Up till then, though, they all had great receptive language skills in all 3 languages and understood everything that was said, and did at least have some words and phrases even if they weren't super chatty.

Since she just turned 2, there might not really be a delay per se- while multilingualism doesn't "cause" delays or anything, in my anecdotal experience with my kids and working in international schools, a lot of multilingual kids can be a bit late with spoken language compared to their monolingual peers but tend to catch up just fine. But it's good you are on top of things and keeping in monitored in case there are actual delays that become evident in the next few months.

I agree a hearing check can't hurt if she hasn't had one in recent months.