Ciao from Rome, Italy!

Anne, welcome! It sounds like you and your husband have been doing a very good job so I agree that you now need more information about your son's development, more professional support.

For general advice, I encourage you to look closely at this excellent guest post by trilingual speech-language pathologist Ana Paula Mumy...

Guest Post: Speech-Language Pathologist Tells All About Bilingualism, Speech, and Language Delays

Within this article you'll also find a link to her website, which has a contact form if you'd like to reach out to her directly. She's a very knowledgeable and helpful person and I'm sure she would be happy to respond.

Of course, the concern about a developmental difficulty has not yet been fully investigated, but it isn't true that children with such conditions can't, or shouldn't, continue on a bilingual path (as Ana Paula stresses in her article and as these posts suggest). In fact, dropping one of the languages can be counterproductive to the child's well-being. So whatever the findings in your son's case, I would advise thinking very carefully about the situation--and receiving sound advice from professionals like Ana Paula--before you might decide to stop using the second language.

Anne, please let us know how things unfold from here. We're thinking of you and sending strength and best wishes for the new year.

I can tell you how it was in my family.

My daughter didn't speak too much until she was 3 years old. People sometimes think if the child is bilingual then parents can expect delay in speech development. However I heard it is not true.

I was also really worried about it.

Just before Christmas I found on youtube a video with a speech therapist demonstrating saying basic English sounds. For 2 weeks every evening my daughter had bath time...! We were filling up the tub with hot water full of lather, she was getting into it, daddy was sitting on the floor with the paper with those sounds, and we were practicing saying: a, o, i, u, etc. That video was so great because it showed how to say the letter and express it on one's face. Along with the sounds I showed her how to open her mouth properly, sometimes there were letters with hands.

I stopped doing this when she finally could articulate all of them. That helped a lot!

My wife and I noticed that when we were together at home all day, because of Christmas and New Year, she rapidly started speaking more. We both have full-time jobs and our daughter used to be with our grandparents at that time.

Last thing that just came to my mind was a story about my oldest brother. He started speaking when he was 4... My parents told me that the doctor at that time said to them that he would be very smart. That turned out to be true!

Good luck!

Here you go: