Are we talking enough to her? Is she talking enough?
Mar 28, 2017 22:44:31 GMT 9
Post by Claudia M. on Mar 28, 2017 22:44:31 GMT 9
Hi all,
So this is our situation:
mother (me): fluent/native Spanish but now dominant language is English
father: understands some Spanish but doesn't speak it much or well
paternal grandfather: native Spanish speaker and fluent in English
paternal grandmother: deaf, only understands English/ASL
maternal grandmother & grandfather: Spanish speaking only
Local community: English speaking
I stay at home with our daughter (a couple months shy of 2 years) and from birth she's been exposed to Spanish, ASL, and English. I try to speak to her mainly in Spanish but I struggle with it for several reasons. While I'm fluent and it's my native language, it's no longer my dominant language and so it often feels like a chore. I don't feel I can be as descriptive in Spanish as I am in English. It weighs on me that I have to forgo speaking to her in the language I now feel most comfortable with because I'm her sole outlet for our ml. I also worry that she's not getting as much language input with me speaking in Spanish than she would if I were speaking to her in English.
We visit our family a couple times a year and take vacations to Spanish speaking countries during which she's immersed almost entirely in Spanish. We also have play dates 2-3 times a week with other Spanish speakers. We read as often as we can in Spanish, though finding quality Spanish books that support our family philosophy (we prefer to stick to realistic pictures/stories) have been hard to come by. Our daughter is a huge bookworm so reading is a big part of our day and often I find myself reading to her in English - and then describing the illustrations in English as well. I try to mitigate this by prefacing it in Spanish by saying: This book is in English. I'm going to read it in English. And then reverting back to Spanish when we're done. Similarly, when we're together as a family, I speak to my husband in English and often find myself speaking to her in English too because he doesn't understand a lot of Spanish and he feels left out. When we're out and about just the two of us, I'm pretty good at just speaking to her in Spanish though.
Since I didn't feel I could commit to OPOL, I tried the Time & Place approach - speaking to her in Spanish only in the mornings and English in the afternoons but these days I stick to mostly Spanish all day long, although as I said above, it is laborious.
Our daughter hit all her milestones really early so I think we have subconsciously expected her to hit her language milestones early too. I worried that she was behind but our doctor assured us she wasn't. Currently, at 22.5 months, she speaks around 100 words in English and 35 in Spanish with 11 additional pronouns. She signs 40 words all of which she can also say in either English or Spanish, except for 3. She forms 2-4 word sentences. Which is to say she's on target but my concern is that only 8-10 of her spoken words overlap, meaning she can say them BOTH in English and Spanish. Her receptive language is remarkable and she clearly knows both words for an item but only chooses to speak one. Which means we end up with a lot of mixed-language sentences such as "mama please mas leche". I also worry that she doesn't speak to me in the language that I am speaking to her. I know this is because a need hasn't been established.
I also read that by age two children should be speaking at least 50 words and she's doing so in English but not in Spanish, should I be concerned?
We've enrolled her in a Spanish-only preschool. She will start this fall 2-3 mornings a week. But she's at a stage where she is repeating everything and learning so many new words a day and I want to maximize that so I feel like I really need to get on the ball. I worry sometimes that I'm not doing her language development justice by just speaking to her in Spanish because it's less words per hour that she's hearing or my sentences aren't as rich as they'd be in English. I guess I'm just feeling a little insecure. I still very much believe in the importance of raising a bilingual child and I know it will be beneficial to her in the long run but it's overwhelming as I'm sure so many of you know. She definitely is exposed to Spanish for well over 30% of waking hours, and gets read to in Spanish for 15+ minutes a day but I worry it's just not enough.
Moving forward I need help on solidifying an approach that is going to work best for our family and that doesn't make me feel limited in my expressions to her. Also, would love your take on how speaking less words per hour in a minority language vs what would be more per hour in the majority language affects language development.
Thanks in advance.
So this is our situation:
mother (me): fluent/native Spanish but now dominant language is English
father: understands some Spanish but doesn't speak it much or well
paternal grandfather: native Spanish speaker and fluent in English
paternal grandmother: deaf, only understands English/ASL
maternal grandmother & grandfather: Spanish speaking only
Local community: English speaking
I stay at home with our daughter (a couple months shy of 2 years) and from birth she's been exposed to Spanish, ASL, and English. I try to speak to her mainly in Spanish but I struggle with it for several reasons. While I'm fluent and it's my native language, it's no longer my dominant language and so it often feels like a chore. I don't feel I can be as descriptive in Spanish as I am in English. It weighs on me that I have to forgo speaking to her in the language I now feel most comfortable with because I'm her sole outlet for our ml. I also worry that she's not getting as much language input with me speaking in Spanish than she would if I were speaking to her in English.
We visit our family a couple times a year and take vacations to Spanish speaking countries during which she's immersed almost entirely in Spanish. We also have play dates 2-3 times a week with other Spanish speakers. We read as often as we can in Spanish, though finding quality Spanish books that support our family philosophy (we prefer to stick to realistic pictures/stories) have been hard to come by. Our daughter is a huge bookworm so reading is a big part of our day and often I find myself reading to her in English - and then describing the illustrations in English as well. I try to mitigate this by prefacing it in Spanish by saying: This book is in English. I'm going to read it in English. And then reverting back to Spanish when we're done. Similarly, when we're together as a family, I speak to my husband in English and often find myself speaking to her in English too because he doesn't understand a lot of Spanish and he feels left out. When we're out and about just the two of us, I'm pretty good at just speaking to her in Spanish though.
Since I didn't feel I could commit to OPOL, I tried the Time & Place approach - speaking to her in Spanish only in the mornings and English in the afternoons but these days I stick to mostly Spanish all day long, although as I said above, it is laborious.
Our daughter hit all her milestones really early so I think we have subconsciously expected her to hit her language milestones early too. I worried that she was behind but our doctor assured us she wasn't. Currently, at 22.5 months, she speaks around 100 words in English and 35 in Spanish with 11 additional pronouns. She signs 40 words all of which she can also say in either English or Spanish, except for 3. She forms 2-4 word sentences. Which is to say she's on target but my concern is that only 8-10 of her spoken words overlap, meaning she can say them BOTH in English and Spanish. Her receptive language is remarkable and she clearly knows both words for an item but only chooses to speak one. Which means we end up with a lot of mixed-language sentences such as "mama please mas leche". I also worry that she doesn't speak to me in the language that I am speaking to her. I know this is because a need hasn't been established.
I also read that by age two children should be speaking at least 50 words and she's doing so in English but not in Spanish, should I be concerned?
We've enrolled her in a Spanish-only preschool. She will start this fall 2-3 mornings a week. But she's at a stage where she is repeating everything and learning so many new words a day and I want to maximize that so I feel like I really need to get on the ball. I worry sometimes that I'm not doing her language development justice by just speaking to her in Spanish because it's less words per hour that she's hearing or my sentences aren't as rich as they'd be in English. I guess I'm just feeling a little insecure. I still very much believe in the importance of raising a bilingual child and I know it will be beneficial to her in the long run but it's overwhelming as I'm sure so many of you know. She definitely is exposed to Spanish for well over 30% of waking hours, and gets read to in Spanish for 15+ minutes a day but I worry it's just not enough.
Moving forward I need help on solidifying an approach that is going to work best for our family and that doesn't make me feel limited in my expressions to her. Also, would love your take on how speaking less words per hour in a minority language vs what would be more per hour in the majority language affects language development.
Thanks in advance.
- but I hope they reassure you!
