Bi lingual question!

Okay, so children learn languages differently than adults do. When we learn a second language, a lot of what we learn about a new language is based on the rules we have in our first language. So, when I learn something new in a second language, I am noting whether this new rule is the same or different from my first language. Kids don’t have a set of rules or experiences to pull from when they learn new languages. They learn almost completely from observation and trial/error. If your husband is fluent in Spanish, have him speak to your child only in Spanish. Yes, tv shows and music in Spanish will help too, but constant input in both languages is what is going to create a bilingual child. His brain may start separating the languages in to Mommy’s Language and Daddy’s Language, meaning if he wants something from mommy, he has to say what he wants in a certain way and if he wants the same thing from daddy, he has to say it a different way. You child may get frustrated and confused sometimes, but that’s temporary, I promise. Kids being brought up in bilingual households often have a bit of a speech/language delay, but that’s completely normal since their brain is learning two languages at the same time. They catch up quite quickly once they reach a certain stage. By kindergarten, most kids brought up in a bilingual household have a baseline of spoken fluency in both languages. They will probably be evaluated by their school’s ESL department and be documented as heritage speakers of Spanish. The trick to continuing to build fluency in Spanish is to push reading and writing in Spanish as well. A lot of times, kids raised in a bilingual household in the US will be fluent enough in listening and speaking, but will lack those same skills in reading and writing because they aren’t getting reading/writing input from school in their second language. So take note and try to match their reading level at school in English with the same level of difficulty in Spanish as they move up through school.

I have a Colombian friend who is fluent in Spanish and his wife is American and only English. They have a 1 year old. The way they do it is he only speaks Spanish to the baby and his wife only speaks English. It makes sense to me! They’re learning both at the same time.