Advice for Helping Your Child Learn Multiple Languages

Creating the Best Environment

As a parent or family member, the best thing you can do is foster a healthy environment. Build a partnership between your family, your child’s caregivers, and specialists such as audiologists and speech-language pathologists.

Learning two languages can your child understand and enjoy multiple cultures more easily, help them access a wide range of opportunities throughout life, increase their overall feeling of self-worth, and strengthen their sense of personal identity.

Your child’s education should consistently emphasize developing speech and language skills and provide them with access to the most current technologies. And you should be sure to monitor your child’s hearing progress and use the most age-appropriate language.

When Should You Start?

As with so much that has to do with hearing, the earlier the better. But as long as your child has access to speech within the first few years of life, that’s a good sign they’re ready to start learning verbal languages.

It’s up to you to decide how you want your child to learn a second language. There are two main techniques: learning them at the same time or learning them one after the other.

Learning Languages Simultaneously

Exposure to multiple languages before age three:

• You could speak one language to your child at home and the other language in public. Perhaps your child learns a second language you’re not fluent in from native speakers like teachers.
• Or maybe your child learns one language from one parent and another language from the other parent.

Language Development Guidelines

Every child is different, but you can refer to these points as general guidelines as your child develops language skills in multiple languages simultaneously.

• Early on, your child will probably just listen without speaking. This can last anywhere from four to six months.
• By 12 to 13 months of exposure to oral language, your child should start saying single words.
• Your child will probably mix up the languages in these early stages. They might understand a concept in both languages but only speak it in one. For example, if your child is learning English and Spanish and hears “milk” then they may say “leche.”
• After one or two years, they should be able to talk about concepts in both languages, even if they don’t say full sentences in a single language.
• Then after age two, they should be able to recognize the difference between the two languages and switch between them as appropriate.

Learning Languages Sequentially

Being exposed to a second language after age three:

• Start by talking to your child in the language used at home.
• Once your child has good basic knowledge of the first language, you can begin introducing the second language.

The Importance of Talking

How quickly a child develops an understanding of words and syntax in each language depends on how much exposure they have to each language. More exposure can lead to faster development, so talk, talk, talk!

Here are some ways you can ensure your child receives lots of auditory input:

• Introduce larger elements of culture to give context to the language.
• Keep your child involved with proficient speakers of each language they’re learning. Try to organize playtime with other children who are learning or know the language.
• Look for cultural activities you can share with your child that involve the language, like going to the theater or an interactive museum.
• Play games! Some games, like “I Spy” or Bingo, can be played easily in all languages.
• Read stories aloud to them in each language.
• Watch television shows or movies with them in the languages they’re learning, and let your child know they can ask you any questions they have.