Starting early, getting into the habit and staying positive are some of the vital components for getting your bilingual baby or toddler to speak a minority language. This is a short video based on the first part of the post 40 ways to motivate bilingual children to speak the minority language.

  We have answered more than two hundred questions on the topic of raising bilingual children, and the worry that gets mentioned most frequently is whether kids growing up to learn more than one language can get confused by the languages in their family and environment. Again and again we emphasize that this is a […]

Question Hello, I’m pregnant with our first baby and start to be worried about the future language development of my son. I’m Polish, my fiancé is French and we communicate in English (I can’t speak French and my fiancé can’t speak Polish). Nevertheless, we live in Poland as my partner works here in a French […]

Question Hi Rita, I recently was recommended your site to get advice how to raise my son bilingual. Our family background. We have a 1-year-old boy, who’s just starting to form some sounds. My husband is British and I’m Hungarian, we live in the UK. So far I was speaking to my son in both […]

Question Hello, I have a question concerning a triligual environment in which my daughter (9 month old baby) lives. I am Serbian and my husband is French and we are currently living in France. I am speaking my native language to our baby and my husband his. She is going to a French nursery since […]

Babies and toddlers During the early years of your child’s “talking career” you may be holding a monologue for much of the time, but this is when you set the foundation for the language and there is a lot you can do to encourage your little one to start talking. Make talking your minority language […]

  Fantastic news from the father of our fictional multilingual family, who are living the very real highs and lows of millions of bilingual mothers, fathers and children across the world.  They welcome the latest addition to their family on what is the last page from the diary for now. Don’t despair, though, there will […]

Question Hi, I’m currently pregnant but have started questioning so many things about my kids already. Me and my husband both are from India settled in US. My parents do not understand English and can speak only in native language. I would like my kids to learn and write my native language so they can […]

It is with joy I welcome today’s guest poster, Diana Sampedro, a Spanish mother and language English-teacher who is raising her daughter to become bilingual in Spanish and English, which is not Diane’s native langauge. She has written a book about her experience, giving advice to other parents who want to follow her example and pass […]

  “How to motivate my child to speak the minority language?” is one of the most frequently asked questions to our panel of Family Language Coaches. This challenge will also be the topic of the up-coming Raising Multilingual Children blogging carnival, which I will host here next week. Motivating a child to speak the minority […]