Many parents are concerned about the implications of exposing children to a bilingual parenting environment. There are many questions about the delays or confusion a child may experience when exposed to two languages at such an early age. Many parents are even discouraged because they are wrongly advised that learning two languages can confuse their children and cause speech delays. It's not like that.
One of the most widespread myths is that a child who learns two languages at the same time becomes confused and uses the two languages without differentiating one from the other. But according to Barbara Zurer Pearson, researcher at the University of Massachusetts expert in bilingualism and author of the book "Raising a Bilingual Child" the baby a few days after birth can already differentiate between one language and another especially if these two languages are very different from each other and in the case of more similar languages the child manages to differentiate them around 6 months of age.
It is important to mention that there is a possibility that when the bilingual child begins to speak he will begin to get his vocabulary from both languages and therefore construct phrases such as "drink milk" but this does not mean that he does not differentiate between the two. Bilingualism experts agree that mixing two languages is transitory and disappears as a child's vocabulary increases in both languages.
It is likely that the myth of language confusion has its basis in fairly old research which claimed that learning two languages at such an early age was counterproductive and thus caused many professionals to erroneously advise parents to avoid bilingualism and continue to do so to this day.
Current research shows that being bilingual has many advantages, such as the ability to think more flexibly. At the semantic level, bilingual children have two or more words for each concept, which translates into more than one way of solving problems. Other studies maintain that children exposed to several languages are more creative and their brain circuits are programmed so that in the future the child is more prepared to learn more languages; they also have a better metalinguistic development that is the ability to understand the structure and components of language, a very important skill for learning. It has also been shown that these children have a greater ability to focus attention when it is needed.
It is true that some bilingual children usually take a little longer than monolingual children, but this is not a general rule and if it were to happen, it would be a temporary delay again.
Numerous researches on bilingualism reveal that the vast majority of bilingual children reach the various stages of language development at approximately the same time as monolingual children.
As all children develop skills at their own pace, specific ages vary from child to child regardless of whether they are spoken in one or two languages. Some children say their first words at one year of age while others say them at one and a half years of age and this is no different in the bilingual child.
This is normal if we can confirm that the child understands passive language, i.e. follows instructions and tries to respond in non-verbal ways to communication in the second language, even if he does not yet use expressive or verbal language.
It is important to stop believing that bilingualism can be harmful to the child's language development. However, if you have doubts about it, it is best to consult a professional. If you want to provide a bilingual education to your child my recommendation is that each parent address him in the language he speaks most since at this age the most important thing is to provide your child with a correct linguistic model. For example, if one parent speaks better English and the other parent speaks better Spanish, then each parent should speak with their child in the language in which he or she speaks best.
Lic. Rocío Vargas
Speech, Language and Voice Therapist.