I continually meet multilingual families with a little one who is slow to talk that are told some of these things:
“Don’t worry, it’s because she’s bilingual”.
“Bilingual children start speaking later”.
“Aren’t you confusing him with so many languages?”
“Better concentrate for a while on one language, until it is already at the level”.
“Two languages are fine, but three or four? You’re overdoing it a little bit”.
And so I could write pages and pages of opinions that are given to multilingual families about their upbringing in several languages.
The concern of multilingual families: Between myths and misinformation
Today I was talking to a family that has a three-year-old who is exposed to three languages (two at home and one in school). The mother told me that she wasn’t worried about the mix six months ago, but lately she had become more and more concerned. This is due to social and family pressures, the amount of information on the internet, which isn’t always reliable and often contradictory and negative.
This concern and over-reporting changed her attitude toward her child. Now she feels like focusing more on “him not speaking” or “him not saying the words right”. When before she just enjoyed her little one.
It is alarming that families have this misinformation, bad information, and consequently, concern! Because being worried has consequences. We see it in this example of this mother. The focus has shifted to what the little one “doesn’t say” or what he “says wrong”. And this translates into a mother who corrects him explicitly, who makes him repeat, and starts doing very “educational” activities. At the same time, we see a little one that is frustrated and upset, that does not want to repeat
The impact of the interactions and concern about language development
There have been studies since the nineties that have evaluated mother-and-child pairs with children without any challenge in development, and therefore, mothers without any concern. They have analyzed how these mothers communicate with their children. And they have highlighted and extracted some common features of the speech of these mothers.
These mothers speak slower, adapt to their children’s level, respond with affection and responsiveness to the communication attempts of the children, modify their tone of voice and a few more adjustments in their language. These have been identified as relevant and characteristic of a communicative style that favors the language development of the little ones.
In contrast, mother-and-child pairs with children presenting some challenges in development and communication (late talkers, autistic and children with Down syndrome) were also analyzed and they observed that those mothers did not make the same kind of adjustments in their language as the first. On the contrary, they “lose their naturalness” and adopt communicative behaviors that do not support the language of their children.
We can see two clear extremes in the communicative behaviors of these mothers. At one end, mothers who talk very little because they don’t understand the child, or they don’t get an answer, or think the child doesn’t understand them, so “why talk to him?”. On the other end, mothers who can’t tolerate their children’s “silence” and then fill it with lots of language, leaving no room for the child to take their turn in conversation, and using many questions like “What is it? What is it called? What does it do?” without giving them real and declarative models of language.
This is what the above mother experienced: her way to communicate with her child became less encouraging, and the reason for this was genuine concern and lack of adequate information.
All this is part of naturalistic intervention, a method of linguistic intervention based on theories that explain the acquisition and development of communication and language from an interactive approach. The natural context (the child’s home with the primary caregivers) is the place where learning takes place and where the intervention should also occur.
The first step is to make caregivers aware of these interactions and communicative behaviors that may be either supporting or hindering the development of their child’s language.
I could provide hundreds of examples, like this mother from all the families I have accompanied and continue to accompany in my speech and language therapy practice with a naturalistic intervention approach.
The importance of breaking those myths for healthy linguistic development in multilingual children
Knowing that concern and lack of information have direct consequences on the relationship, interaction, and communication between mothers and children (and by extension with other family members, and between educators and students), it is important that they have reliable and up-to-date information on how language development occurs in multilingual children and what the role of the adult is in this process.
To achieve this, we should begin by breaking the harmful and incorrect myths surrounding language development in multilingual children, meaning addressing all those initial statements made by people who are not experts in language development, let alone multilingual language development.
However, I need to make a clarification. Unfortunately, there are also professionals who are experts in language development (speech therapists) but are not specialized in multilingual parenting and who also perpetuate these false myths.
I continuously hear families tell me that it was the same speech therapist who told them, “Focus on just one language for now.” And not to mention other health professionals (pediatricians, psychologists) and educators (teachers, pedagogues) who also do not have the proper information on these topics and believe that the child’s “delay” is due to bilingualism.
Let’s then break down three of the most common myths surrounding language development in multilingual children.
1) Speaking more than one language confuses the child
In my workshops, I often start by asking people who are born bilingual whether they felt confused by acquiring two or three languages from birth. Our answer is, of course, no.
However, people who were born with one language and had to learn one or more languages later in life know that they faced challenges. For some it was very difficult, and they may even continue to experience fluency, grammatical, or phonetic issues throughout their lives.
When these people become parents of a child who will grow up bilingual, they have many questions and doubts. So it’s not the bilingual child who is confused, it’s the monolingual mom, father, family members, educators, and speech therapists who are confused.
Studies show that babies, even in the womb, recognize the different languages spoken near the belly. And when born, they can already distinguish the different languages they hear regularly by their prosodic features.
What might be happening, however, is that the family does not have a well-defined linguistic plan that suits their circumstances, needs, and expectations. Often, it’s the caregivers who change and mix languages. The first step would be to create a family language plan that considers the amount and quality of input the child will receive in each language, as well as consistency, a positive linguistic attitude, and communication strategies that support language development.
2) Bilingualism and multilingualism cause language delay.
Many people and professionals believe that bilingualism or multilingualism causes language delay, which is false, as we’ll see with data.
There are even people who tell me they don’t believe bilingualism causes language delay, but when explaining their view, they express that they think bilingual children take longer to speak. Even if just a little bit.
In the end, they’re almost saying the same thing, just trying to soften it. “It doesn’t cause language delay, but…” That “but” shows they don’t truly believe what they’re saying.
No, bilingual and multilingual children do not take longer to speak. Not even a little bit.
Science and the experiences of millions of children growing up bilingual, trilingual, and multilingual tell us that, indeed, being bilingual and trilingual is completely normal in many parts of the world. “More than 50% of the global population is at least bilingual, if not multilingual”.
According to researchers Annick De Houwer and Mary-Pat O’Malley, specialists in multilingualism, the language development patterns in bilingual and monolingual children are similar.
This means that both monolinguals and bilinguals go through the same stages in early communication development: babbling, the emergence of communicative intent, the accompanying gestures, the first words, the increase in vocabulary, the lexical explosion stage, the telegraphic speech stage… (Note: here, we refer to an analytical versus gestalt language development).
There is no difference between being monolingual or bilingual. A two-year-old child should be communicating and saying words just like a monolingual child.
If a two-year-old or older child isn’t saying many words, the explanation “it’s because they’re bilingual” doesn’t work, because that’s not the cause.
What does exist are particularities from being bilingual or multilingual. Bilingual children are acquiring two or more vocabularies and grammars, making grammatical and phonological interference errors, and may have an “accent” for a few years. It’s also possible that one language dominates, with the other(s) being much less developed or (almost) non-existent (expressively).
This very situation contributes to the myth that these children are not truly “bilingual.” But again, the idea of “not being sufficiently bilingual” or “truly bilingual” is another myth perpetuated by those who don’t understand what it means to be a bilingual person.
Research shows that being bilingual is not the same as the sum of two monolinguals.
Lastly, it’s important to clarify something: bilingualism does not cause language delay, but there are bilingual and multilingual children who do have language delay.
Studies indicate that the percentages of language delay in monolingual and bilingual children are the same (between 5 and 10%). And when a multilingual child has a language delay, they will face challenges in acquiring each of their languages.
3) Giving up a language when the child has language delay
I’ll finish with this recommendation or mandate which is quite common among speech therapists, psychologists, and educators who don’t have the proper knowledge regarding language development and delay in bilingual children.
When it’s detected that a bilingual child is taking longer to speak or has a delay in language acquisition and development, the family is told to give up one of the languages. In other words, to focus on just one language until there’s a significant improvement in their language (in just one language).
This practice is common in monolingual countries or regions. These professionals feel their language is above any other, because it’s the “most important, most useful” language, the one the child will “need” to communicate in the community with their peers.
But they don’t consider the importance of the language they’re setting aside, putting in second place, in an inferior position: the language of the mother or father, causing losses and breaks in family and cultural connections.
From the adult’s perspective, they’ll have to speak a language in which they might not be competent. I’ve seen mothers speak to their children in the acquired language, speaking it full of grammatical errors, vocabulary mistakes, phonetic issues, lacking fluency, and sounding unnatural.
Or, even if the adult is competent in the acquired language, it’s likely not the language of their heart, the one used for affection. And it’s not the language they chose to communicate with their child when they were born.
From the child’s perspective, even though “delayed,” they were acquiring that language through connection, bonding, and interaction with their caregiver. This child was indeed acquiring that language, even if it wasn’t “visible.” Comprehensively, a lot of work had been done. And suddenly, this changes. This will have consequences.
I addressed this topic in more detail in my article for The Linguist, discussing what communication truly is and how it develops thanks to the relationship, bond, and love between the child and their mom, dad, and family.
On the other hand, maintaining each language, when done with an understanding of the importance of daily quality moments, bonding, play, and interaction with the child, will be what promotes and boosts the child’s language development in their multiple languages.
Conclusion: Proper information and approach to support and strengthen multilingual language development
Language development in multilingual children is surrounded by myths that generate unnecessary concern and behaviors that can negatively affect their communicative process. It’s essential to understand that speaking multiple languages does not confuse children, does not cause language delays, and restricting the use of a language doesn’t solve communicative challenges.
Scientific evidence shows that multilingual children go through the same language development stages as monolinguals, and the observed differences, such as interference or temporary accents, are normal and do not reflect confusion or delay. Rather than limiting their exposure to languages, it’s crucial that caregivers encourage natural interactions based on emotional bonding, play, and quality time spent together.
Fighting myths, providing updated information, and supporting families with an evidence-based approach, such as naturalistic intervention, is key to creating an environment that promotes optimal language development in multilingual contexts. By doing this, we help families and children move forward with confidence in their language skills, strengthening their family, cultural, and emotional connection.
References
Bayarri, E. (2021) «Language delay: why giving up a language is not the solution», The Linguist, p. 28.
De Houwer, A. (2009) An Introduction to Bilingual Development.
De Houwer, A. (2009) Bilingual First Language Acquisition.
Del Río, M. J. y M. Gràcia (1996). «Una aproximación al análisis de los intercambios comunicativos y lingüísticos entre niños pequeños y adultos», en Infancia y Aprendizaje. 19(3):3-20
Grosjean; “Myths about bilingualism”, web de François Grosejan.
Imberg, R. (2024) Podcast Bilingüismo Consciente, Episodio #9 «¿Qué es un plan lingüístico familiar y cómo creo uno para mi familia?»
Kohnert, K. (2009) Bilinguals with Primary Language Impairment.
Kohnert, K., Ebert, K. D., & Pham, G. T. (2020). Language disorders in bilingual children and adults. Plural Publishing. Chicago.
Marimon, M. (2024), «En els primers mesos de vida podem distingir molts més sons que un adult», Diari de Barcelona, Universitat de Pompeu Fabra.
Melo, M. F. (2024) “Dónde se hablan más idiomas”, Statista.
O Malley, M.-P. (2022) Multilingual Children: How To Develop All The Languages They Need & What To Do When You’re Worried.
Sorace, A. (2021) Pódcast 10-Minute Talks «More than one language – why bilingualism matters», The British Academy.