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

August 29, 2019
by Mary Pat
Comments Off on Six of life’s frustrations that are necessary for our children’s emotional development.

Six of life’s frustrations that are necessary for our children’s emotional development.

A few years ago, I did an interesting course with the wonderful developmental psychologist Gordon Neufeld. (You can check him out here. ) I learned a lot about attachment. And the importance of frustration for our children’s emotional development and well-being. The general idea is … Continue reading

July 4, 2019
by Mary Pat
143 Comments

Three crucial things to remember about language development in bilingual children.

Dr Kathyrn Kohnert, a speech & language therapist and researcher in the US wrote a very interesting article in 2010 for speech & language therapists. Her aim was to explore how to best provide speech & language therapy for bilingual … Continue reading