Will my child get confused? When should my child learn another language? My child has a condition which delays language learning, can he/she still learn a second language?

Most Singaporeans, like more than 60% of the world’s population, are bilingual or multilingual (Wei,2000). With our education system having a bilingual policy, many parents in Singapore have many concerns about raising bilingual children:

Learning more than one language limits my child’s ability to acquire language

The number one fear is that the child doesn’t only perform poorly in a second language—the “main” or first language gets affected too. However, studies have found that bilingual children:

1. 1. • Achieve similar critical milestones such as babbling and first words within the same time frame as those born in a monolingual environment (Maneva and Genesee,2002)
      • Produce first words around the same time as monolinguals (Genesee, 2003; Patterson & Pearson, 2004)
      • Are often found to know fewer words when each language is considered separately, but equivalent or even more words when the languages are considered together (Pearson & Fernández, 1994)

But will my child be confused and mix up the two languages? To answer this question, it’d probably be more accurate to ask, “will my child use words from two (or more) languages in the same sentence”? Yes. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing! Even if your child “mixes up” both languages (code mix), we can look at it this way: that this indicates their awareness of grammatical structures and constraints of each language, and their ability to activate both language systems simultaneously in a conversation. Children who are exposed to more than one language are actually competent in communicating and are usually able to adjust how much they should code mix according to who they’re speaking to. In fact, research has found that bilinguals rarely grow up using incorrect mixed sentences, especially if they receive formal education in that language in school.

Younger age = better acquisition

Some of us are aware of a ‘critical period of language acquisition’ where kids learn best. The problem is that age is usually linked to exposure, but these two factors sometimes don’t go hand in hand. There is also no consensus on whether exposure to a language at an earlier age on its own helps with achieving native-level language skills. There is evidence that other things being equal, young second language learners are more likely to attain levels of oral proficiency like those of monolinguals or, at least, greater proficiency than learners who begin to learn a second language when older (Birdsong & Vanhove, 2016)

More exposure = better acquisition

Studies report a positive relationship between exposure and language proficiency, which means that children who are more exposed to a language showed higher proficiency. In Singapore, English has become the most frequently reported main language at home for children between ages 5-10 (2010 Singapore Census). Understandably, these children might be more likely to show poorer competence in a second language, especially if they have no interest in learning it, much less using it. By encouraging the use of both languages for entertainment and fun, caregivers can help enrich their children’s language skills, and show them that there is more to learning a second language than just doing a subject in school.

My child has language and/or developmental problems, should they be learning more than one language?

Studies found that bilingual children with language impairments such as Developmental Language Disorder (or Specific Language Impairment), and developmental impairments such as Autism Spectrum Disorders, were not at greater risk of “worsening” their condition compared to monolingual children, nor do they fall short on language skills compared to monolinguals who have similar conditions (Bird et al., 2005; Hambly & Fombonne, 2012). However, these children are often excluded from bilingual programs and may have an impact on their future, such as employment opportunities or acceptance in a community, and cognitive benefits associated with bilingualism. More research needs to be done for us to learn more about how individuals neurological disorders deal with having two languages.

Here at BLIP Lab, we’re interested to find out more about the language landscape in Singapore, and how this might affect children’s language skills! We know that most children would be exposed to more than one language and are excited to see how language environments possibly change language outcomes. Join us in our discovery by clicking here.

Bird, E. K., Cleave, P., Trudeau, N., Thordardottir, E., Sutton, A., & Thorpe, A. (2005). The language abilities of bilingual children with Down syndrome. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 14, 187–199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1044/1058-0360(2005/019)
Birdsong, D., & Vanhove, J. (2016). Age of second language acquisition: Critical periods and social concerns. In E. Nicoladis & S. Montanari (Eds.), Lifespan perspectives on bilingualism. APA and de Gruyter.
Hambly, C., & Fombonne, E. (2012). The impact of bilingual environments on language development in children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 1342–1352. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1365-z
Genesee, F. (2003). Rethinking bilingual acquisition. In J. M. deWaele (Ed.), Bilingualism: Challenges and directions for future research (pp. 158 –182). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Genesee, F. (2015). Myths About Early Childhood Bilingualism. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 56, 6-15. doi: 10.1037/a0038599. (main ideas in this post was drawn from this review article)
Maneva, B., & Genesee, F. (2002). Bilingual babbling: Evidence for language differentiation in dual language acquisition. In B. Skarbela, S. Fish, & A. H.-J. Do (Eds.), Boston University Conference on language development 26 Proceedings (pp. 383–392). Somerville, USA: Cascadilla Press.
Patterson, J. L., & Pearson, B. Z. (2004). Bilingual lexical development: Influences, contexts, and processes. In B. A. Goldstein (Ed.), Bilingual language development and disorders in Spanish-English speakers (pp. 77–104). Baltimore, USA: Brookes.