at what age did your dc start to sound like they were speaking a language other than English?

(8 Posts)
QueenofKelsingra Tue 22-Oct-13 16:30:35

My DTD has just started saying 'oui', its her 5th word (maman, papa, nanna, and no-no) and she's been saying the other 4 for about 3 months. she is now 17m. DTS has no words at all! I think DS1 had a couple of French words as well as his English, in fact he seemed very equal until he was 2, the French fell behind a bit once he started using sentences.

not sure about babble sounds though. DTD is the only babbler and it sounds the same whether to me or her father.

DoudousDoor Sun 06-Oct-13 07:34:16

Around 18 months we noticed that DS' babbles to French people were different to his babbles to English. Most noticeable in the playground.

He's 2 now and has a few clear words in each language but isn't very advanced in either. Not sure if and when to worry. He understands both languages perfectly so he'll get there in the end.

Ooops - I never noticed until they used actual words from their other language, which was probably around 14 months with the boys, who were born here, and a few weeks after we moved her with DD, who was 19 months and already speaking well in English when we moved blush

DC3 stopped using any German for a while at about 22 months, while his English surged ahead, for no logical reason (no trip to the UK in that time or anything) and then after a few months of seeming monolingual his German started to come on again, both understanding and speaking. He's 2.5 now and his English is still ahead but he does fine in German (minority language - English - at home, just started playgroup in German twice a week, no other child care but very immersed as we don't spend time with expats. Older kids are fully bilingual without any problems, at school and Kindergarten in German.

No idea on sounds before proper words though, very remiss of me! DD did revert to babble a bit when we moved, which annoyed me as I was very proud of her speaking in sentences so early, but I learned it is normal when acquiring another language as a toddler.

SolomanDaisy Wed 28-Aug-13 13:16:52

My DS was clearly making a sound from his second language at 12 months - it is a simple sound though.

gintastic Sat 17-Aug-13 18:40:59

About 18 months when DD first got the 'll' sound in welsh. The rest of the sounds are pretty similar to English so we couldn't really tell until she got that one.

cory Sat 17-Aug-13 18:33:08

what luvmykdis said. And it's the same in Swedish: the most distinctive sounds are usually the last: think tj, skj and the rolling r: my monolingual nephews didn't really get those until they were school age

dc sounded like monolingual native children from the start, but like monolingual native babies iyswim

sometimes I did take it as interference with English- until I heard my nephews

luvmy4kids Fri 16-Aug-13 17:52:56

it depends on whether you're good at hearing sounds or not. By 18 months perhaps? Go through the phonemes of each language. The most distinctive ones in English are also the last to be perfected usually, the vowel sounds you should hear more differences earlier.

honeytea Fri 16-Aug-13 13:39:30

Ds is 8 months old and he hears both English and Swedish at home ( opol) he has just started babbling.

I was wondering at what age your dc started making sounds that were different to a child that hears only English?

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