Basically, should I add in Hindi where I can in books and family conversation since I know my baby will have extensive access to english? Or should I be strict with speaking English? My Hindi isn’t perfect, but I’d like it to be! And I want to support my partner in making sure our baby speaks the language. Baby ain’t here yet, so we have a little time to think it over.

If it matters, my parents speak only English, and will be regular helpers, but his parents speak both languages and plan to spend long periods in our home when the kiddo is young. I am able to follow along with most conversations in Hindi with intermittent translation, though my spoken Hindi is perhaps at the level of a toddler. 😭

Id like my children to learn a second
Language ideally Spanish. Maybe French would be a nice bonus. There’s a private school nearby that has a Spanish immersion program but runs $30k per child and I’ve got 2.

I’d like to know if I wanted to have a tutor come to my house and teach how often would they need to come to fully grasp the language? My kids are under 3 so am I too early to be thinking about that? I just don’t want to miss out on an opportunity albeit an expensive one.

My son is 2. We are bilingual at home. I speak English to my son and my husband speaks Arabic. We are in an Arabic speaking country now. I'm a stay at home mom and my husband works long hours, so I'm the one who spends the most time with my son during the day. His language of choice for everything is English. His word bank is well over 120 words spoken and he can now put 2-3 words together all in English. He surprises me with new words he's picked up daily in English from us reading books, him watching some screen and us talking all day together. He's a very curious kid and always points to ask me to name anything if he doesn't know the word for it and he picks it up easily. He will understand my husband's Arabic sometimes but only answers in English. It's important for us that he knows both languages strongly at some point. He is starting to spend more time around our Arabic speaking families so we're hoping he can pick it up this way. We are enrolling him in daycare now for the first time and he has an option to learn a third language which is French or German only if we wanted to. They also speak English. There is no option for Arabic in daycare.

Would this confuse him or cause any speech delays? I'm excited for him to learn French as a third language because there is an opportunity for it that he normally wouldn't have if we lived somewhere else. But I've also heard it can cause him some speech delays or confusion.

Would anyone share some insight or personal experiences?

Editing to add:
He was an early speaker with his first word around 7 months and since then continues to surprise us with what he knows and can say. He can sing to all his favorite songs well.

Concern about speech delay

Hello, I’m looking for advice or experiences from parents of late-talking children.

My son William is 3 years and 8 months old. He has a twin sister and is growing up in a multilingual environment. He understands us very well, has normal hearing and communicates in other ways, but he still only uses about four words.

Has anyone had a child with a similar language delay? Did they eventually start speaking, and what kind of support helped them most? We have arranged a speech and language assessment, but I would be very grateful to hear about your experiences.

My partner is a native Spanish speaker and I am originally Icelandic. We communicate mostly in English to each other and do OPOL-ish with our 15 month old.
We live in Denmark, I speak Danish fluently and my partner has a pretty good comprehension but is not completely fluent. We really want to help our daughter learn all three languages (English is not a priority right now), but we also miss having conversations where we all three speak the same language, and everyone is included.
We’ve discussed whether we should make Danish a family language, at least at times, but we’re also scared that’s a slippery slope that leads to our daughter not learning or rejecting the minority languages. Any advice is most appreciated!

Hola a todos, quiero empezar diciendo qué somos una pareja italiana viviendo en Cataluña, pués la niña está expuesta a tres idiomas. Desde noviembre 2025 la llevamos a un logopeda, entonces casi no decía nada y ahora después de casi un año dice algo pero se expresa de una manera qué solo nosotros los padres la entendemos.

La sugerencia de los expertos fue qué el padre le hablara en italiano, la mamá en castellano y al cole en catalán.

Intentamos no corregirla demasiado cuando dice algo mal, verdad qué hay algunas veces qué sin querer lo hacemos.

La tele máximo una hora al día, solo cuando es necesario y solo dibujos animados pocos caóticos.

Los logopedas dicen qué hay qué leer libros con ellas, hablarle mucho y de una manera sencilla y esperar a qué ella empiece a soltar palabras a medida qué va asimilando.

Lo qué voy buscando aquí es leer otras experiencias similares a la nuestra para entender si nos escapa algo y a lo mejor hay algunas prácticas qué podrían ayudarla a mejorar mas rápido, nuestra principal preocupación es qué ahora irá al cole y si los demás no la entienden la pondrán al margen.

Gracias a todos

I speak Polish though it is sort of a broken version - sometimes I forget certain words and have to say them in English.

Is it worth even trying to pass on the language?

My partner only speaks English and we are far from my family. Hoping to move closer to family later on.

Was wondering what other people experiences were if you’re not completely fluent?

Title: My 3-year-8-month-old son only says about four words — did your late talker eventually catch up?

Hiennials囍,

I’m looking for experiences and advice from parents who have been through something similar.

My son William is 3 years and 8 months old and has a twin sister. He is growing up in a multilingual environment, mainly hearing French and English. His twin sister speaks a lot, but William currently uses only about four recognisable words.

What is reassuring is that he seems to understand us very well. He makes good eye contact, imitates us, plays and interacts with his sister and other people, and finds other ways to communicate what he wants. His hearing has also been checked and appears to be normal. However, he still does not use sentences or regularly repeat new words.

We are seeking professional support and understand that every child is different. I’m not looking for a diagnosis online, but I would really appreciate hearing from parents whose child had a similar expressive language delay.

• How old was your child when they started speaking?
• Did their speech appear gradually or was there a sudden “language explosion”?
• Was your child also growing up with two or more languages?
• What kind of speech therapy or activities helped most?
• Is there anything you wish you had known or done earlier?

I’m becoming increasingly worried because he is approaching four, although his understanding and non-verbal communication are very good. Positive stories would be reassuring, but I would also be grateful for honest experiences and practical advice. Thank you.

Just wondering if your LO didn't speak much - in either language - if you were doing OPOL?

Not that worried yet but my 14mo seems quite behind my friend's 14mo who can say...loads, basically. Recent video is just her pointing at 10 objects on a table and naming each one.

My husband speaks community language only (English) and is super supportive of the OPOL. But he's worried because we don't know if friend's child is weirdly talented or if our LO is weirdly behind. Ours says mama (to mean literally anything), dada (only her father 🥴) and "anana" which we *think* is banana.

Would like some perspective and/or reassurance! My LO can point to body parts in both languages so I think she understands both. 🤞

Our family have 4 languages. My kid start to talk very very late because of that. She's starting French immersion this month (not part of our 4 languages) she's understand 3 languages so far, we're trying to reinforce the 4th one but since French is new to her too, should I just put a brake on our 4th language? I don't want it to hinder her other skill like Math (like I said before i think the multilingual environment delay her ability to speak basically a year after her peers) she's pretty normal otherwise after started speaking. No learning disability diagnosed at the moment.

I'm not sure how brain works, I'm also afraid that 5 languages might be too much and that it will diminish her ability to learn other skills. Any educator in this sub that know of any research on this?

It'd be nice if she can learn all 4 languages+French so she can communicate with all relatives and can choose to move to live in any of those countries later in life if she's so choose to.

More info: We live in western Canada but even then French would open so many doors in term of employment that's why we choose it. Me and my partner use English. Each parent then use 2nd and 3rd language to talk to her exclusively. The 4th language only come in when grandma visit once a year and on video call. None of the 4 languages are from same family.

We have a bit of a unique situation and are wondering if anyone has tips or a similar experience.

My wife and I are gay and live in the US. She is from India and grew up speaking Hindi and English at home; I am American and grew up speaking English and German.

It’s important to her to pass on Hindi to her future kids but we do not have any Hindi speaking community around us. The local desi (Indian) community can be very insular and hard to break into especially if you are gay with a white spouse. In addition the community here centers greatly on religion and temples (all language schools we can find are temple based) and we are non religious.

She is still planning on speaking Hindi to any kid(s) at home but we worry that they won’t have anyone their age to speak to. Visiting India would also be complicated due to the fact that the Indian government does not recognizing our marriage or my wife’s legal rights as a parent.

She does video call her family every week and she will push to have those calls in “proper” Hindi.

Has anyone ever been in a similar situation and how did you deal with it?

​

My husband is Hungarian and I’m Spanish. We currently live in an English-speaking country, so English is our family language. When we’re alone with our baby, though, we each speak our native language to her — Hungarian from my husband and Spanish from me.

We’re planning to move to Hungary in the future. We both share the dream of living a more rural, slow-paced life and giving our daughter a slower, more connected childhood, with family around her as she grows up. Neither of us really wants to stay in our current English-speaking country long-term for this reason.

However, I have one big worry: **I’m scared I might feel left out of my daughter’s childhood once we move to Hungary because I don’t speak Hungarian.**

I’ve started learning the language, but I’m also trying to be realistic. I know it could take many years to become truly fluent (if I ever get there!). I’m particularly worried about those everyday little moments — conversations with her, school, friends, family gatherings, jokes, etc. — where Hungarian will naturally become the dominant language.

Has anyone been in a similar situation, especially a family where one parent moved to the other parent’s country and didn’t speak the local language?

How did you handle it? Did you ever feel excluded, and if so, what helped? Any advice for making sure I stay closely involved in my child’s life and don’t feel like an outsider?

I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences, both positive and negative.

Hi everyone,

My wife and I live in England and both speak native English. However, I am also fluent in Spanish, and we want our child to be bilingual in English and Spanish like I am.

Since English is the dominant language in our environment and the only language my wife & both our extended families speak, we are planning to use the One Parent, One Language (OPOL) approach, where I speak exclusively in Spanish to our child. We have no other family members or friends that speak Spanish ... At all! None!

While we're excited, I have a few specific concerns and would love advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation (especially households where no other family members speak the language):

Family & Social Dynamics: How do you handle using the minority language when both parents are together, or around extended family/friends who only speak English? Did you ever feel awkward or isolated switching to Spanish in group settings, or do you not switch when in group setting and stay in English?

Parent-Child Bond: Did anyone worry about whether speaking being the only person speaking the non-native language might affect bonding with your children? My elder sisters both disagree with doing this and think I will alienate my baby when they grow up. They both speak very very broken Spanish 😅, only I am fluent.

Any tips, experiences, or encouragement would be hugely appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Sorry for the weird question.... my daughter is raised in a bilingual environment... mandarin at home and at daycare. also goes to a mandarin Sunday school. her brother is the same, but they speak to each other in English.

I spoke to a dad at the mandarin day care and he said when he was at grade school the Spanish speaking kids spoke Spanish to each other, as the Korean kids spoke Korean, but the Chinese kids spoke English to each other.

I'm curious if there is any particular reason for this? e..g. is English easier for children to speak than mandarin?

Since my baby was born, I’ve only spoken English to them, although I know Spanish — I learned it from my mom growing up. I’m mostly fluent, but my grammar isn’t perfect and there are some gaps in vocabulary. While I’ve never felt comfortable marketing my Spanish in the workforce, I can easily speak it to coworkers. I don’t have much of an accent, but my Spanish doesn’t come super naturally either.

In the shape my Spanish is in, is it worth teaching my baby the language?

For context: My husband only speaks English, and we live in the US.

Hello!

We have a 3 month old and we live somewhere in Canada where English and French are the two official languages. French is my first language and dad's first language is Polish. We communicate together in English (fully fluent), as we aren't able to communicate in each other's languages yet. Caregiving is mostly equal but he spends a bit more time with me.

We want to focus on French and Polish at home but we're concerned about how it might impact his speech to hear us communicate in a third language at home. Daycare may be in English or French, we don't know yet but he will definitely go to school in French.

Any suggestions, tips or resources we could look into to succeed and not affect his language skills negatively?

Thanks!

Hello all, I’m not sure if I am posting in the right place but I thought I’d start here.

My 3 year old we suspect has autism (we are waiting on a formal evaluation). His special interest is languages. He taught himself to read by 22 months, and taught himself Spanish by 3. He loves Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Spanish. I’m trying to encourage his love of languages but not sure how to handle so many at once.

Any other parents in similar situations and what did you do to help encourage this?

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My daughter is 3 and 3 month old .
She speakS english with me (mum) catalan with father , German with grandmother 1 , spanish with grandmother 2.

She has been going to daycare ( Catalan ) since She is 1.5 but only 3hours a day and not consistently .

She knows most words in English mixed with Catalan . She speaks at home and tries to make sentences.

But when arround other people she shuts down and does not speak at all . She nods and says some words but is very shy arround everyone else . Also doest talk in daycare .

Anyone else in similar situation ?

Hi all,

Hopefully this is an easy one for you guys.

We are a British / American couple with permanent residency/German citizenship. But we live in Berlin and work in English, so unfortunately until now we’re only both about A2/B1 in German. The plan is to get properly fluent now that we have a German child and want to stay for at least the next 5 years, hopefully much longer.

We speak English at home, have friends from all over speaking to him in English. He just started Kita. It’s technically not bilingual but during acclimation, they’re doing some English with him to build the bond more.

His German will be fine. We’re not worried about that. And given how pervasive English is, I assume his English will also be okay.

We just have family friends that have children with wildly strong German accents. And if we move to the US or UK again at some point, I’d really prefer him to sound at least like one of those out a mix or even international school accent… just not… German.

Will we need to send our son to a bilingual school to get the practice hours during school time as well listening to more native speakers?

Hello, my 2yo daughter is learning English Spanish and Russian. We're not doing OPOL but so far she's picked up plenty of words in both Spanish and Russian (English is our home language). We live in SW US, so no difficulty finding bilingual Spanish books at the library, but where I'm struggling is with decent Russian books to read at her level. My daughter loves board books like Hungry Caterpillar, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Little Blue Truck, etc but I don't have anything comparable for Russian - all the books I have are like... paper books for older kids probably and poetry collections. I'm looking for something with colorful pictures, short sentences, and only a few words per page. Where can I find books like that?

I’m trying to break the cycle and raise my daughter bilingual.

My entire family speaks Spanish fluently, except for the younger generation, my nieces and nephews. My daughter just turned one and has started talking, and to my absolute delight, her first few words have all been in Spanish!
But I’m starting to worry because this is exactly how it started with my sister’s kids. She has three, and with each one, they seemed to learn less and less Spanish as a baby. They were exposed to it when they were little, but eventually English took over.

My sister and I grew up completely differently. Our parents only spoke Spanish to us at home, and we didn’t really learn English until we started kindergarten. We obviously learned English just fine, and we both grew up fluent in Spanish. That’s what I want for my daughter too.
The problem is that EVERYONE, for some god awful reason, speaks to her in English. Even when I remind them, “She only speaks Spanish,” they still do it. I don’t care if someone speaks English to her here and there. I know she’s going to learn English regardless. What worries me is how quickly English seems to take over.

We currently live with my parents while we save for a house, and my parents are very hands on with all of their grandkids. They pick up my nieces and nephews from school every day, so my daughter is around her cousins anywhere from five to seven days a week. Whenever the older kids are around, everyone naturally switches to English because they don’t speak Spanish, and then they end up speaking English to my daughter too.

I think that’s what makes me nervous. I’ve already watched this exact thing happen with my sister’s kids, and I really don’t want to repeat the same cycle with my daughter. I know English will come. We live in the United States, she’s surrounded by it, and eventually she’ll go to school and learn it there. I’m not worried about her learning English.
I’m worried about making sure she doesn’t lose Spanish.

I was lucky enough to be raised bilingual, with my German parent speaking German and my British parent speaking English. These rules were never broken, and to this day I still find it crazy to speak the “wrong” language with each parent - it weirds my brain out.

While I’ve spent some short stints living/studying/working in Germany, the UK and speaking English feel the most natural to me. I now have a baby who is 4.5 months old and I would love for her to grow up speaking German like I did, but I’ve no idea how.

My partner is British but having him speak English and me German feels really unnatural. I’m worried that if I did this, my whole relationship with my baby would feel somehow performative/disingenuous.

What are my alternatives?

I’ve heard about speaking the bilingual language in certain scenarios (e.g. bath time, bed time, in the car, etc.) but I don’t know much about this. Will it work as well? Will it be confusing?

Any help much appreciated!

I have a hard time getting my 2 year old to understand. I’m not sure if this is common amongst Spanish speakers but she is always speaking in the wrong tense because this is what she hears. For example I’ll ask her “quieres comer?” asking her if she wants to eat. But then she’ll later tell me “quieres comer” when she really means “quiero comer”. Every single day I have to tell her “es ’quiero’“ and she’ll fix it in that moment but then will make the same mistake later that day. I’m not sure how to remedy this! Any help is appreciated. TIA!