Parenting Stack Exchange
Parenting Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [language-development]

Learning to talk in the first place, and learning to speak properly. See also the tags [language] for general language issues and [bilingual] for issues involving more than one langauge.

177 questions
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What are some strategies for raising a bilingual child?

We are planning on raising our child bi-lingual. The plan is for my husband to only speak English to her and I would only speak Tagalog (a dialect of the Philippines). I have asked my parents to also only speak to her in Tagalog since she will get…
Rhea
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7 answers

Toddler made "incorrect" animal identification that is actually correct. Better to correct her or not?

My niece is a year and a half old. I was reading a book on animals with her recently and helping her learn the names of the animals in it. I noticed that she identified the picture of a lion as a "kitty". Is it pedagogically better at this point to…
Robert Columbia
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How do my wife and I stop our son from learning to swear from us?

My wife and I both tend to have... colorful language (for me it tends to be far worse when driving). Our son just turned one, and is starting to become more verbal. He's not quite at the point where he's repeating whatever we say, but it is just…
user420
29
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6 answers

Is baby talk helpful or detrimental?

I have heard both that 'baby talking' in response to a child's babble is productive, and that 'baby talking' is counter-productive and can impede language development. Any thoughts?
Brandon Frohbieter
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28
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9 answers

Raising a bilingual child when one parent knows both languages while the other doesn't

I am in the USA, originally from India, and my wife is American. My native language is Hindi. My wife knows only a little bit of Hindi. It hasn't been a problem because we usually talk in English anyway. We are expecting our first baby soon and…
user536048
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25
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4 answers

8 month old not babbling, when to worry and what to worry about

My wife and I have two boys: a 3-yr old toddler and an 8-month old infant. The toddler is doing extremely well with all physical/motor and emotional/intellectual/communication aspects. My 8-month old, physically, is also right where he should be.…
smeeb
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7 answers

Would it be bad to only speak to a child in a language in which you are not completely fluent?

My husband and I can speak daily conversational Mandarin, probably at the fluency and vocabulary of a native 3rd grade speaker. So decent, but not great. We speak 99% of the time in Mandarin to our son (though we speak English to each other in…
gaosan80
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10 answers

Two year old son sometimes using female verb endings - grammar issue?

My native language is Russian and this is important in scope of the question: past tense verbs are gender-specific here, for example "I've made..." will be "Я сделал" if you are a boy and "Я сделала" if you are a girl. So, I have a 2 year old son…
k102
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18
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6 answers

Does using sign language really accelerate a child's ability to speak?

I have often heard that using sign language is really good in teaching a baby to talk. Is this really true, or is this an urban legend? Related: Can toddlers learn sign language?
user35
17
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3 answers

How can I deal with adopted son who promised to the god he believes in to never to speak until he sees mommy again, when mommy is dead?

My 5 year old adopted son is, contrary to everyone else in his entourage, religious - a leftover from his days in a war zone. His mom died some time ago - by suicide - and since then he hasn't said a word. Instead of talking, he knocks to…
edoreld
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Should I stop teaching my toddler a second language if his exposure to it will be limited?

I have stared to talk exclusively in English to my son when he was less than 6 months old. However, we have decided not to move to an English speaking country, so I ended up practically alone. It's been two years since then (he's 2y7m old now) and…
Matej Kovac
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10 answers

How do I explain regional differences in language?

What are good methods of explaining to my four-year-old son why "color" is not how he should spell "colour", even though it is spelt that way in many of the books he's reading? (Also "realize", "favorite", etc). Similarly, although less…
Tony Meyer
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How to further an aptitude toward early literacy?

Every so often in our 2.5-year old daughter's life I catch myself marveling at some skill that our daughter seems to master far beyond what I naively expected her to be able to do. I'm sure many parents have this experience. One of my fears is that…
Wolfram Arnold
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14
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6 answers

Raising a tri-lingual child, tricky context

I have found many of the topics here very interesting, but would like to share my personal situation, as it is quite specific, to see if you guys have any advice or experiences to share. :) I am German, and my wife is Hungarian. We live in Sweden (I…
Dirk
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14
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4 answers

Teaching the difference between "you" and "me"

My daughter is 20 months old and quite the talker. However, she doesn't understand the concept of pronouns (understandable since it's an abstract concept) and thinks that the word "you" always refers to her. For example, when she wants us to read…
Daniel Walker
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