I would feel like a fraud if I didn’t mention our recent trip to the Speech and Language therapist. Ok I panicked, I am raising my children bilingual, well more so the youngest who I started speaking to in Spanish at one, the eldest is learning but I always thought I was moving back to Spain and didn’t start speaking to him in Spanish until much much later. A blog for another time, don’t worry he is not left out!

As a mother I did the unthinkable but normal process of comparison, comparing the youngest speech with the eldest at age three. However:

Children are different
Eldest was raised monolingual
Conditions are different
My effort is different

Was I causing a problem? why is the youngest not as fluent as others? As you know I took the boys to Spain for the summer and this was a much need language boost. Before we went I self referred the youngest to speech and language assessment. The outcome of yesterday’s assessment?

My youngest is fine, he switched between Spanish and English depending on who was talking, he has caught up in Spanish impressive to think he has only had two years of Spanish and is three. His English will catch up with his stronger dominant language, ESP as he has started English pre school.

I write this to encourage you all, bilingual, monolingual parents who may have experienced language delay. From my reading not all kids experience it, but every child is different and when my child was ready to sleep through no potty train in his own time, the same with his language he has chosen his time to talk.

Suerte with your endeavours
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