a question about multilingual babies

Mon May 9 08:21:05 UTC 2011

Dear Aliyah,

Thank you for your reply and comment. What I am cautious about is *not being
bilingual* (I speak two languages and understand three languages) but is *about
early bilingualism*. *Many early bilingualism* (for example the one Edith
explained) one language is *dominant* and functional.

I think we need research to see if multilingual *interaction from zero (one
month forward)* would exist very much or not. Usually one language is
functional not two languages. This is the case we have in Iran. Turkish or
Armenia all are bilingual but kids from zero are mostly (if I say not all of
them because I have no research at hand), through my individual questioning
parents, are interacted in one language first and the second language is not
dominant or interactional in early stages.

*from educational perspective*, bilingualism brings many chances but when we
approach the issue from the *clinical perspective* we need to *be very
cautious about claims* and result of research.

Many cognitive problems like autism may not show itself till age two. If we
expose our kid when we are not even aware of his health to more than one
language, our kids are at risk. Unless you have an evidence of autistic
bilingual who benefit multiple exposures.

Moreover, do you think who is more healthy: the kid who start speaking at
the age two or the one who starts at the age of four or five. expressive
language is very important to mental health. I have seen those kids with
language delay that are angry when they cannot express themselves some times
they show aggressive behavior.

Natural exposure is not what we argue about here. I am talking about
purposefully confusing kid with many functionally used language while we are
not sure that this kid is completely OK.

Best,
Parisa Daftarifard

On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Aliyah MORGENSTERN <
aliyah.morgenstern at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Parisa, dear Tamar and Yves,
>
> 3/4th of the world is at least bilingual, if not multilingual and some of
> us have been exposed to 2 , 3, 4 languages from birth. Don't be so quick in
> saying it provokes more language delay than being monolingual. And remember
> most monolinguals are native English speakers (and native French speakers)
> and write a lot of papers...
> So lets take our time before we stress parents about what to do with their
> children when they are lucky enough to live in a multicultural society.
> I'm sure more specialists of multilingualism will answer. PLEASE take your
> time and don't follow ONE advice.
> Best,
> Aliyah from Paris
>
>  Le 9 mai 2011 à 05:11, parisa Daftarifard a écrit :
>
>   Language delay is much more dangerous than loosing time for true
> bilingualism. There are many risk factors like being autistic, developmental
> delay and global delay in terms of cognition. I think recent psychology
> suggests for learning one language first and then being exposed to other
> languages. I can send you some books off list.
>
> Best,
> Parisa
>
> On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 3:55 AM, beachjade <beachjade at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear Tamar and Yves,
>>
>> There is a recent paper by Janet Werker that may be relevant to your
>> second question about how early should you expose your child to his many
>> languages.  In contrast to an earlier response to your post, my reading of
>> the literature suggests that bilingualism/multilingualism in an of itself is
>> not a risk factor in development.  This is echoed by
>>
>> http://www.lsadc.org/info/pdf_files/Bilingual.pdf
>>
>>  <http://www.lsadc.org/info/pdf_files/Bilingual.pdf>
>> http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/pspi_10_3.pdf
>>
>>  <http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/pspi_10_3.pdf>
>> http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2010/werker.cfm
>>
>>
>> On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 10:48 AM, Tamar & Yves <tamarmr at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello all,
>>> Our 10 months old son is exposed to 3 languages at home ( each one of
>>> us is speaking to him his mother- tongue, and we speak English between
>>> us) and to a 4th one outside.
>>>
>>>
>>> Soon he will be starting Nursery, and we were wondering what language
>>> it should be in. Is it better to expose him simultaneously to all 4
>>> languages or should we do it gradually over the first few years of his
>>> life (It's possible to sign him up to a nursery in my husnband's
>>> mother tongue (2)/ english (3)/ bi lingual (enviroment+English)(4))
>>>
>>>
>>> We don't want language acquisition to be too much of a burden on him,
>>> and not sure how many languages he can learn at once.
>>>
>>>
>>> We are aware of the large number of factors affecting the answer, but
>>> does anyone know or refer us to research done on the specific issues
>>> of (i) number of languages babies can learn and its implication on
>>> their emotional state; and (ii) Is it better to expose a baby to those
>>> languages simultaneously or gradually over the first few years of his
>>> life.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Tamar & Yves
>>>
>>> --
>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>>> "Info-CHILDES" group.
>>> To post to this group, send email to info-childes at googlegroups.com.
>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
>>> info-childes+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
>>> For more options, visit this group at
>>> http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "Info-CHILDES" group.
>> To post to this group, send email to info-childes at googlegroups.com.
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
>> info-childes+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
>> For more options, visit this group at
>> http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en.
>>
>
>
>
> --
>
>

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Info-CHILDES" group.
To post to this group, send email to info-childes at googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to info-childes+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/info-childes/attachments/20110509/8204b8ee/attachment.htm>