Communicating with Baby

Hi Geetha, hopefully this thread will answer some of your questions. It's definitely not too early to think about a baby's language skills though. Even though a six month old doesn't have the words yet, he still is catching up a LOT on language. It is said that the first year is the best year to introduce as many languages as you can to the baby. A one month old's brain can actually differentiate between two or more different langagues!! Your baby can learn AND master two (or even three) different languages at the same time. I would recommend that you do talk to him in English also, in addition to your mother tongue. By the time I was five, I spoke three languages clearly - Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam, and I didn't have any speech delay either. In fact, my mom say I used to be a chatterbox, just like my daughter now. And we talk to our daughter in English, Hindi and Tamil (and a little bit of German). She has toys that speak in Spanish. And no, they don't get confused. Her brain knows what to do and how to categorize everything in its place, so to speak.

Talk to your baby a lot with inflections, make faces, sing songs and read books. Your baby will turn just fine. The more he hears different languages, the more his brain will make those tiny connections, and it will be easier for him in the future to learn new languages also. Mastering a language is a life long journey, I don't think anybody can master a language fully - just my thought. Atleast, I am not a master yet of any languages that I speak.

Raj

 

Hi Geetha,
Raj is 100% correct. My mother tongue is Kannada, I was born and brought up in Kerala among Tamil Brahmins and I learned Malayalam and Hindi and English at school. So I have a good advantage of knowing so many languages. Except Kannada, I can read and write also in the other 4 languages. So you talk to your baby in as many languages as possible (definitely the main language should be love) and expose him to lots of things. The baby's brain will take up whatever you teach him before he is 3, so put in more by way of play, don't force him.
My tailor is a Punjabi who lives in Chennai. She talks to her 3 year old daughter only in English so that the child will speak good English. But I told her she is depriving her child the chance of knowing many languages. But she is adamant, I can only suggest.

 

Geetha, a lot of research has been done on bilingual babies. The formula often prescribed is one parent one language i.e. you speak in mother tongue, DH in English, etc. In my experience, we speak to K my little one in both languages and he prefers to speak first in my mother tongue, but at 20 months started learning the English equivalent too. For example, we taught him to say thaneer in Tamil first, now he says Thaneer and water, when he needs some. He prefers Tamil over English, but is learning both languages simultaneously.
:thumbsup for teaching more than one language.

 

Hi Geetha,

Well I think it's easier for a mom to communicate with a baby in mother's tongue.. that comes naturally. For my boy we spoke (and speak) both in tamil and english. you know we don't speak pure tamil either.. it's always a mix. plus my son (3.5 yrs old) went to a german day-care and hears so much german outside that now he speaks and thinks in german. But he does know the equivalent of any word in 3 languages. he's not at all confused. simple example is he always calls us appa, amma and when he refers us to his friends he says that in german.

But it's important that the child hears the mother tongue too and not just english (as varloo says). I believe mother tongue helps a lot in emotional connection. Since you live in an english-speaking environment, even if you don't speak it at home, your baby will pick it up faster than you imagine.

Latha