My best friend speaks two languages and her Grandmother only spoke her native language. Her brother speaks English only. It never was a big deal.

Keep speaking your language to both your kids. How do you know the older one doesn’t understand? Do they give an appropriate response if you ask them something/tell them to do something? As a parent of a trilingual kid (and one who was raised bilingual), this is very odd to me. I remember not producing much in the non local language growing up but I always understood it all. My kid clearly understands all three, even if he doesn’t produce much in the two non English ones..

My advice would be to continue your first language in the home as the PP suggested. Especially to nurture your younger child's exposure.

My guess is that you have kids with different language personalities, and that #2 is just more interested and comfortable expressing herself in a second language.

Would your husband consider working to learn your first language? (With your son, perhaps?)

Anonymous wrote:Expose your children to your mother tongue. Don’t think of it as teaching, just have them spend time with grandparents, talk to them in it in circumstances when there are lots of context cues, and sing them the lullabies your mother sang to you.

Kids with language delays can learn two languages, and get all the same cognitive benefits as typical kids. I teach kids with significant intellectual disabilities who code switch between two languages, and the benefits of connecting to grandparents is huge.

Completely agree. My perspective though is if you speak your first language with one child, you MUST also try with your other. It will become very divisive otherwise

Expose your children to your mother tongue. Don’t think of it as teaching, just have them spend time with grandparents, talk to them in it in circumstances when there are lots of context cues, and sing them the lullabies your mother sang to you.

Kids with language delays can learn two languages, and get all the same cognitive benefits as typical kids. I teach kids with significant intellectual disabilities who code switch between two languages, and the benefits of connecting to grandparents is huge.

Anyone has kid that can only speak 1 language AND another kid can also speak foreign language in the same family at young age? What could be the problem?

My 5 year old can only speak 1 language (English), but he reads at 2nd grade level. He still has some articulation problem, and he does speech therapies weekly. And, my 2 year old does not speak much, but she can speak & understand English & 2nd language (my home language). I am undecided if I should introduce 2nd language to my 5 year old. He is not interested & does not understand 1 single word, but I am not sure if I should force him to learn it. There are limited online/book resources to teach this 2nd language. Their beloved grandparents live local, and they does not speak English. Grandparents are the ONLY REASON I want to introduce 2nd language to both kids. DH does not speak or understand 2nd language. It did not work well with my 5 year old when he was younger. He did not speak any word till 3 years old, and I thought he was mute. And, I found out later that he has some articulation problem, but he is a smart kid on both reading level (2nd grade level) & math level (3rd grade level).

Another option is I introduce 3rd language which DH can speak at beginner level, I can speak/write/read at immediate level & grandparents can speak/understand at beginner/immediate level. There are a ton of online resources & I can buy curriculum to homeschool this language. I can sign him up for online summer camp 1 hour/daily. The problem is that I rarely hear grandparents speak that 3rd language and I am not sure if I am qualified to teach 3rd language (I am not proficient in it).