a question about multilingual babies
marilyn vihman
marilyn.vihman at york.ac.uk
Mon May 9 09:33:47 UTC 2011
Just to add a word to this discussion: There is certainly no evidence
that bilingualism in early childhood leads to real language delay -
although the vocabulary size of bilingual children tends to be smaller
in each language, while still being larger if the two are put together
(see studies by Barbara Pearson, inter alia).
How could we possibly demonstrate that bilingualism leads to delay?
Each child is different in rate of language learning; there is no way
to know whether a child exposed to two languages would have learned
more quickly if exposed to only one - but since bilingual children
often have vocabularies of a very respectable size by age two (500
words or more in production, with a correspondingly good start on
producing combinations), there is definitely no overall tendency for
language delay - based on the many case studies published to date.
The question of the best advice for a multilingual family whose child
IS seriously delayed (by which I mean very few words as late as 2.5
years and no word combinations) is something else again: I think the
experts are divided on this one, but common sense suggests that
consistent home use of just one language may be helpful for a child
who happens to have difficulty with language learning.
One small bit of anecdotal evidence: I have just met the family of a
child exposed to three languages from the start (English as the
interparental language, Estonian from the mother and Spanish from the
father), who had a number of clearly identifiable words at 9 months -
which is remarkably early for any child, monolingual or not. This
single example is enough to illustrate at least that real precocity in
lang. dev. is not incompatible with multiple-language exposure.
(Should we believe that this child was 'delayed' and would have had
10-20 words already at age 7-8 mos? I know of no reason to think so!)
-marilyn vihman
On 9 May 2011, at 12:04, parisa Daftarifard wrote:
> Dear Christophe,
> Thank you so much for your reply. As you stated "how environment can
> trigger autism but
> environment seems not to be the origin of this "impairment" seems
> not but no research proves this. Some say Genetics, some say
> Genetics + environment, some other says Vaccine, Some say
> environment. I have recently read an article that state all of us
> can be placed on this spectrum one way or another but with low
> percentage. You know there is no agreement yet on whether Science is
> Fact or Hypothesis.
>
> As researchers, we cannot give advice to risk kids' health even if
> we have enough evidence that there are many bilingual kids that are
> healthy.
>
> What is agreed here is that early bilingualism would lead to
> language delay (either expressive or comprehension) and this could
> be dangerous for a possible autistic child. and we will not learn
> some autistic symptoms until ages of two or even five and even ten.
>
> In science we are working with probability. No one can here claim
> that all ideas stated early in this list are true for 100% and when
> it comes to health (mentally and cognitively) we are even cautious
> with even minimum percents (saying 10 % percent).
> Of course, by saying these I mean to be of help not ignoring some
> probable facts.
>
> Best regards,
> Parisa
> On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Christophe dos Santos <christophe.h.dos.santos at gmail.com
> > wrote:
> Dear Parisa,
>
> I have read a lot of papers recently that seems to show that Autism is
> strongly based on genetic origin (not only one gene but a pool of
> genetic alterations can cause autism).
> It is not clear however ".
>
> A general article about autism (but a simple search will give you a
> lot more information about genetic issues linked with autism) :
> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/autism-and-genetics-a-breakthrough-that-sheds-light-on-a-medical-mystery-1996221.html
>
> Best,
>
> Christophe dos Santos
> Université François Rabelais, Tours
>
> 2011/5/9 parisa Daftarifard <pdaftaryfard at gmail.com>:
> > 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.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
> >>>>
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> --
> Parisa Daftarifard
> Phd Student of TEFL
> Islamic Azad University of Science and Research
>
>
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Marilyn M. Vihman
Professor, Language and Linguistic Science
V/C/210, 2nd Floor, Block C, Vanbrugh College
University of York
Heslington
York YO10 5DD
tel 01904 433612
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