child bilingualism

[John Myhill]

Having read what others have had to say on this topic, regarding Liz Bates'
statement that blingual children acquire both languages normally by the
time they are 3--this is just not my experience, and it sounds to me like
this is not the experience of other linguists who have actually lived
through this situation. My daughter was and clearly remains behind other
children her age in all three of her languages (she's four). But she's also
clearly catching up at least in Hebrew and English, and I'm sure the same
will happen in Japanese when we go there this summer. I think that people
who claim that bilingualism doesn't slow down either language, or that this
only lasts until the age of three, are indulging in wishful thinking, or
analyzing other peoples' children for relatively brief periods rather than
living with the children and observing everything. But I am equally
confident that bilingual or trilingual children will catch up before
long--just not at the age of three or four.   John Myhill