"Practical ideas on what to do" is the request I often get when I ask my readers what I should write about in my blog - so here are 21 of them to cover the different stages! Before your baby is born 1. Get used to speaking your language with your child as early as...
Q&A: How to prepare a bilingual toddler for a move to another country?
Question Hello, I'm looking for resources and advice for educating our daughter who is now nearly 7 months old. My husband and I currently live in the USA but will be moving to Germany when our daughter is 1 1/2 years old. I'm a native English speaker (US). My husband...
Dear parents of bilingual children – time to cut some slack!
Due to the nature of my work, I spend a lot of time on-line: researching, reading blogs and comments, finding articles to feature in my newsletter and looking for experts and parents to share their stories. Inevitably, I spend quite a lot of my on-line time on social...
When a bilingual child is diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum – what should parents do? [guest post]
It is with great joy that I welcome our guest writer for today, Eugene Ryan, a father-of-two and a researcher into bilingualism and autism, with focus on the effects of a multilingual environment on the linguistic and cognitive development of children with ASD. In his...
Passing on a non-native language to your child, part 3: Activities
The third part in my series on teaching your child a non-native language is all about different language-learning activities that you can do with your kid. So far in the series I have written about the things you need to take into consideration before embarking on...
“I can’t stay consistent!” – the challenge of parenting a bilingual child
I hear you, you are not alone – come closer so I can give you a virtual hug! Not being able to stay consistent in the language use is the most common reply I get when I ask parents what their biggest challenge is when raising bilingual children. So how important is...
Q&A: Is saying something in two languages a good way to teach an additional language?
Question Dear Rita and all other Family Languages Coaches, I am Shoko, Japanese, and a mother of a son who is 26 months old. My husband is also Japanese and we reside in Japan. I have lived in the States when I was 6-10 years old, and also again when I was 22-25 years...
Bilingual children and long-distance family relationships
Many bilingual children have at least one side of their extended family living fairly far away, often on the “other side of the world”. Visits are possible perhaps only once a year, or even more seldom if at all, so it is essential to find other ways to connect....
Q&A: Is it too late to teach my children my native language?
Question Hello, I am so glad I found this website, I just realized I did a big disservice to my kids. I am Italian, live in the States, my husband is American, both of our kids were born and raised here, I have lived here for 12 years now. In the beginning I was...
Passing on a non-native language to your child, part 2: Family language strategy
After taking into consideration all the points raised in the first part of this series, you have decided that you want to give your child the gift of another language. My presumption is that you have discussed this with the rest of the family and everybody agrees that...