September 28, 2020
by Mary Pat
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Language Development in Multilingual Twins

My last post which you can read here is all about language development in monolingual twins. There isn’t a lot of recent research on that topic and there’s even less out there when it comes to multilingual twins. I kept … Continue reading

August 20, 2020
by Mary Pat
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Are twins slower to talk?

  This is the first of a three part series about speech and language development in twins. Myself and Ute Limacher-Riebold of Ute’s Intenational Lounge are putting our heads together to look at the research and real-life experiences. Be sure … Continue reading

May 6, 2020
by Mary Pat
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How To Encourage Your Child To Use Your Home Language

So in your family you need two languages; one is a home language and one is the community language. You speak your home language (German) with your child and your partner speaks English with them- the community language. You and … Continue reading

April 16, 2020
by Mary Pat
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8 Things To Remember If Your Multilingual Child Needs Speech & Language Therapy

#1 multilingual children have two separate language systems from early on and they don’t get confused.  Yes the languages influence each other but that’s not a sign of confusion. In fact, it’s a sign of separateness. You can only mix … Continue reading

March 25, 2020
by Mary Pat
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How To Teach Your Child A Word in Any Language

So we know that vocabulary is very important for learning to read and especially for understanding what you read. Children learn a lot of words! Some estimates say that school-aged children learn around 3000 new words a year while children … Continue reading

January 16, 2020
by Mary Pat
215 Comments

Learning English at school: how long does it take?

How long should it take for your child to learn English once they start school?   If you and your partner speak home languages and your child begins to learn English when they go to school, you might be worried … Continue reading

December 16, 2019
by Mary Pat
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How to do Dialogic Reading with your child in any language

In my last post, you found out about dialogic book reading and how to use books as props for conversations with your multilingual child in whatever language you need. (You can read about the 11 Principles of Dialogic Reading here. There … Continue reading

November 22, 2019
by Mary Pat
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How To Read Together To Build Your Child’s Language Effectively

You can Another proven way to support your child’s language development (whether they have a language problem or not) is dialogic book reading. I’m going to cover how to do it in two blog posts as it’s too much to … Continue reading

October 23, 2019
by Mary Pat
236 Comments

The surprising way to support your child’s second language development

You speak two languages at home. One of them is a home language like Polish which both you and your partner speak. The other one is a community language like English. You feel most comfortable speaking with your children in … Continue reading

September 30, 2019
by Mary Pat
302 Comments

What language should speech & language therapy be in for your multilingual child?

If your child has a language impairment or at risk of developing one you might well be wondering how speech and language therapy is going two work out. Especially if the SLT doesn’t speak your language. This is the first … Continue reading