Raising a Multilingual Child is not a Routine Task

Especially if we are people who were not lucky enough to grow up surrounded by several languages, we sometimes find it difficult to understand the needs of children who are socialized in a multilingual environment. Therefore, if we have a multilingual child at home, we must "sensitize" ourselves linguistically.

Parents of multilingual children tend to be even more concerned than parents of monolingual children, especially when it comes to the age at which the child will begin to speak, or what his or her first word will be, in which of his or her languages, and so on.

However, I must confess that the most important thing for me is to remain calm. We must not allow language acquisition at home to become an overwhelming challenge or a laborious task to be accomplished. The transmission, especially of the spoken language within the family, should be as natural a process as possible, where, as the saying goes, the focus is not on the destination but on the joy of the journey.

Remember that passing on the family language to the children is not really a task, that is, it is not something you can put on your "to-do list" and check off at the end of the day, no! It is a process that takes a lifetime, because no one masters a language completely, it is rather a journey of learning and self-discovery, especially in the languages ​​that we are lucky enough to learn along with the culture that shapes us all.

Assume that every child is different and will speak when they are "ready". This depends largely on their language talent, but above all on their personality. I know many children, both in my work and in my social environment, who can speak "perfectly" but do not feel the need to communicate as much as other children. This does not mean that they are developmentally delayed, but simply that their personality is, for example, more observant or reflective than communicative.

Remember that there is no exact age for children to start speaking. I once spoke to a pediatrician about this and he told me: "We are not Swiss watches that work precisely, we are human beings and we work differently depending on our talents and gifts, but also depending on our physical characteristics."

So, if you are worried that your child has not yet started to speak, rule out all physical possibilities that could hinder the acquisition of language, or rather the manifestation of language. If you are sure that your child does not have any health problems, you can pass on the language to him with all your love, because that is the best method and your child will speak when he is ready. The less stress we put on our children, the more energy and motivation they will have to learn.

So do not despair, take a deep breath, stay calm and spend relaxed moments with your child, prefer games that allow you to interact a lot with him, show him objects and repeat their name, describe them and highlight their characteristics such as shape, colour and size, compare them with similar and opposite objects, etc. Look at a book together, but do not just read the book, describe the illustrations, ask your child what he sees and what he thinks will follow in the story, for example.

There are many playful activities that help make learning a familiar language feel not like a chore, but like a fun adventure that we can all enjoy together as a family.

And how do you know what the first word or language will be?...oh, that's a story for another time, so stay tuned!

We'll read each other soon! 😉