Concerns about language and newborn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just ask any adult who grew up with non-English speaking parents. It's fine! We are the only country that is so afraid of learning other languages aside from English.

I speak 5 languages now, went to Harvard, and grew up with a mom who refused to speak to me in English unless I spoke to her in our native language. I"M FINE!

One would think a Harvard education would have provided better reading comprehension. OP says nothing indicating any fear of her child learning multiple languages. On the contrary, she would welcome it having been a foreign exchange student herself.

She’s asking, however, if her child’s English speaking skills might be delayed if a daytime caregiver is struggling to speak English to the baby. Surely you know that little children who are learning multiple languages at the same, will have delayed acquisition of their “mother” tongue, whichever language that may be.

Btw, I’m also multilingual, as is all of my family.

NBD if it's a delay, they catch up and "wires" the brain for other benefits down the road.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think you’ve invented something to worry about. As long as the child is not being neglected/completely ignored all day long there should be no issue. If you said you had a speech delayed 4 year old who struggles with auditory processing, then I might make a different recommendation. But a 6 month old with no known speech/language delays can certainly develop perfectly well with a caregiver who communicates in her native language as well as limited/accented English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think you’ve invented something to worry about. As long as the child is not being neglected/completely ignored all day long there should be no issue. If you said you had a speech delayed 4 year old who struggles with auditory processing, then I might make a different recommendation. But a 6 month old with no known speech/language delays can certainly develop perfectly well with a caregiver who communicates in her native language as well as limited/accented English.

How do you think children learn to speak?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think you’ve invented something to worry about. As long as the child is not being neglected/completely ignored all day long there should be no issue. If you said you had a speech delayed 4 year old who struggles with auditory processing, then I might make a different recommendation. But a 6 month old with no known speech/language delays can certainly develop perfectly well with a caregiver who communicates in her native language as well as limited/accented English.

How do you think children learn to speak?

Crickets. That speaks volumes.

[Anonymous]

I’d be more worried about the au pair with poor English assimilating well within your family rather than with your infant. We experienced good and bad English with two different au pairs and good English was just easier and drama free due to lack of miscommunication and less WhatsApp use.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand the issue. I'd have the AP speak to your baby in his or her primary language. We sent both kids to a spanish-immersion daycare when they were babies into preschool age. Neither had any sort of a speech delay in English and we are told they were great Spanish speakers as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand the issue. I'd have the AP speak to your baby in his or her primary language. We sent both kids to a spanish-immersion daycare when they were babies into preschool age. Neither had any sort of a speech delay in English and we are told they were great Spanish speakers as well.

So during their daycare years, they heard mostly Spanish - yet no delay in their English? Please explain how they learned English as quickly as a child learning only English in those early years of life.

[Anonymous]

I didn't learn English until I enrolled in private school far into my childhood years, since I grew up in a non-English country.

Not only did I catch up to my peers in English, my English test scores have been in the 94th%+ percentile. I ended up majoring in Economics and run a large team in a consulting firm out of DC.

Your baby will be fine. Learning additional languages will only help them with excelling at languages (and I'm sure other skills as well).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just ask any adult who grew up with non-English speaking parents. It's fine! We are the only country that is so afraid of learning other languages aside from English.

I speak 5 languages now, went to Harvard, and grew up with a mom who refused to speak to me in English unless I spoke to her in our native language. I"M FINE!

That's a totally different situation, unless you changed parents every year.

I think that if the au pair has enough English to communicate well with you, or you speak the au pair's native language yourself, and commits to speaking to the baby only in her native language, and you expect to replace her in a year with another au pair who speaks the same language, or otherwise keep up the language, then a second language is a precious gift.

But an au pair who I couldn't communicate with, who communicated with the baby in broken English, and/or who spoke a language I didn't expect to continue beyond babyhood wouldn't be an option for me.