Should I already speak Italian to my newborn daughter?

Question

I’m originally from Italy and lived in the states for the past 10 years now. My boyfriend and I just had our daughter and she’s 5 weeks.
I want her to also learn Italian and thought if I speak to her only in Italian and my boyfriend only in English she will pick up both languages.
Should I already be speaking to her only in Italian even if she’s just a newborn cuz I find myself talking to her in English cuz I figure she’s so small now.

Answer

Yes! Dont wait until you "think" she will start learning. Babies pick up so quick even if they're not speaking. You'll see at only a few months, after repetition that your baby will react to certain words like "milk" and so on. Also YOU want to be in the habit of always speaking to her in italian because later on you dont want to accidentally say things in english from past habits. But more importantly you need to speak one language exclusively, and your husband another exclusively - this way the child realizes quicker that 2 different languages are being spoken. Also.... it is not uncommon for babies/children learning 2 or 3 languages at the same time to start speaking later on and it is completely normal. Theyre not "delayed", they just have a little more to process

Answer

Hey hun! I’m a linguist and did a lot of studying on early language development. Up to about 18 months of age is when babies are picking up the sounds of language so the earlier you start with her the easier it will be for her to discern the phonemes that are used in Italian. There was an old study saying that bilingual children tend to have language delays but that’s only somewhat true -  often bilingual babies will wait a little longer to start talking but will ultimately surpass their peers by around age 3-5. Let your pediatrician know you’re a bilingual household so they don’t worry.

Answer

Yes. Babies’ brains start pruning “unnecessary” sounds around 7 months, meaning sounds that aren’t in their target language(s). And it’s really hard to relearn them when older.

Answer

Yes. Start now. They do pick things up from a very early age as others have written. And also it will be training yourself to do it as well as it might not feel completely natural if your main home language is English. The recommended way of doing it is OPOL (one parent/person one language) so you should be consistent in speaking Italian only. In our home I speak English to the kids and my boyfriend Spanish. We live in Sweden and they get Swedish from daycare. So far it’s all going very well. Our oldest is 4 and is comfortably speaking all three languages.  He will switch straight away depending on who is talking to him. It’s amazing what they can learn when they’re little!

Answer

I would

Answer

@GlowGPT please help me with this topic!

Should I already speak Italian to my newborn daughter?

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