Question Hello, I have a three-year-old daughter who is bilingual. I speak exclusively English and my husband speaks exclusively Czech to her (since birth). In a typical day, she is exposed to about 70% English and 30% Czech. She listens to music and looks at books in both languages as well as Skypes relatives […]

  Question Hello! My wife and I are native Russian speakers living in the United States. Our son is turning five in a few months and will start school. Our home language is 100% Russian. Our son speaks Russian at or slightly below the level of his peers in Russia and can interact with English […]

  Question Hello We are a Greek family living in Lausanne, Switzerland. We speak Greek at home and French at work. When my wife will return to work after her maternity leave, our daughter will be 8 months old. We plan to hire a full-time nanny until our daughter will be 18-20 months old and […]

  Question Hello My daughter and son-in-law have four daughters ages 8, 6, 4 and almost 2. “Dad” knows some Italian having lived in Italy a couple of years. He thinks he should have been bilingual with the first three daughters. He speaks only Italian to the fourth daughter and English to everyone else who […]

  Question Dear Coaches, I’m a Chinese mum and our family lives in China. I majored in TESOL and was obsessed in bilingualism. So my hubby and I always talk to my daughter in English and the others talk to her in Chinese. Now she’s 3 and she cannot talk, at all. She can understand […]

Amongst the most frequently expressed worries in different forums for parents raising bilingual children are concerns about potential delays in language development. Several research studies have found that bilingualism does not cause language delay (read more in e.g Dual Languages Development and Disorders: A Handbook on Bilingualism and Second Language Learning by Paradis, Genesee & […]

  Question Hello! We moved as an English speaking family to Spain when my daughter was one, at the time none of us could speak Spanish and it was pretty hard. We naturally spoke English in the house and we still do. My daughter did not speak in sentences until she was about four, apart […]

Question Hi, Before I ask for your advice, let me introduce my family and our languages to you. We are a Dutch (mum) – English (dad) family currently living in The Netherlands. We have a 5-year-old daughter and a 22-month-old son. We use an adapted version of OPOL with our children. I speak Dutch to […]

Question Hello! I would very much appreciate your advice on the following situation in our family. My husband and I live in England with our 1-month old son. My mother tongue is Polish, and my husband’s is French. Since our baby’s birth we have been following the OPOL strategy, but now we are planning to […]

I am delighted to introduce you to today’s guest blogger, Dr. Mary-Pat O’Malley-Keighran. She is a lecturer, author, researcher, speech and language therapist, and lover of all things to do with speech, language, and communication. She has over 20 years’ experience of working with families and 14 years of teaching speech and language students. In her […]