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Read about raising children bi-lingual. My oldest is fully bi-lingual in that he speaks, reads and writes in 2 languages at the same level. It is important you have a plan and stick to it. The option that you speak English to the child and your home language is not going to work, it will confuse the child. (that is one person speaking 2 languages to the child) As a single parent I speak one language and one only to the children, if they say something in the other language I ignore or say I do not understand or say 'talk ....'The child will mix the languages in the beginning that is nothing to worry about, when they get more vocabulair that will stop. If it is one word the other language I repeat what they say with the correct word. Learning another language is not a big deal, but you have to be aware that the languages might develop slower in the beginning. You also need people in your life who only speak English to the child as you do not want to loose this as in school everything will be english. If you would keep the child at home and only speak your own language, read books, watch dvd's etc in your language I guess by such young child it will take less than 3 months before he no longer understands a word of English. My youngest lost his first language in less than 5 months and he was 6 at placement.You could also do one parent one language. And the parent spending most time with the child your language, than the other English. Than switch to only your home language when he starts school.Anyway loads to think about, but it can work just fine, it works for us.

Thank you pluto for your reply.I am a bit worried If I will not scare him once we will take him home and introduce new language. He is still a baby but nonetheless he may feel confused listening to our native language.

Hi there,It would be such a shame to waste such a wonderful opportunity of learning two languages together. What pluto says is really good advice about one person speaking only one language to a child. I do think you might only speak English for the first 3 months. Your little one will be upset and confused enough without having the added pressure of not understanding you. However, (and take your cue from him) when he settles a bit more, start with both languages. As pluto says, one person speaks one language and the other speaks the other. Try not to mix that. I have friends who are different nationalities who asked an expert about language and teaching a child to be bilingual and the advice was exactly that. As pluto says, he will be slower with language development overall, because he is learning so much more than only learning one language. But I am sure my friend's child had caught up by school age. In their case, as the child was at an English speaking school, they chose to speak in their native language between themselves at home infront of the children. I would google bi-liingual children and read if there are other ways or better ways.Personally, I think it's a wonderful opportunity absolutely not to be missed. But that's me. Good luck.

I know several families, both adoptive and non, where one parent uses English at home and the other uses another language. Usually the one that speaks English has this as their first language anyway. I also know another family, in your situation ie non native English speakers who adopted in England - their child was then a baby, though not from England or their home country.. In all cases the children are bilingual in terms of their understanding of the language - but most seem to say the child uses English by preference once they start mixing with other English speaking children. The family where they do not speak English at home, frequently visit their country of origin, so it depends on what you plan in the future (if relevant). As a teacher, my understanding is that it is beneficial generally to be truly bilingual.

Also one of mine lived with non English speaking fcs until she was about 18 months. Thereafter she lived with English speaking fcs, then us. Her ability to learn English seemed totally unaffected, though of course she,wasn't hearing two languages at once. But certainly caught up easily as a toddler.

I know someone whose bs can understand both English and her native language, he is 16 months now, as others say it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to bring your AS another language as in the long run it might be beneficial to him. Perhaps you could try and just introduce a few words slowly such as milk, sleep etc? Hope this helps.

As a child, we had 3 languages- 2 for the countries they represented and 1 code language that the adults used when stubbing their toe on the coffee table !

I've forgotten much of the other language now but really wanted to say how much it helps the snugly feeling still I heard someone speaking it on tv and I could smell warm smells of Christmas and felt instantly relaxed.It reminded me of my dad when he'd come home

I don't know if this will help but I have an English friend who moved abroad to live and in her new country they have two main languages (neither of which she spoke very well when she first went there). Her husband (who had got a job there hence why they moved) was fluent in 3 or 4 languages (2 of which were the main ones in the country they live in). She was pregnant at the time she moved and gave birth to twins who they raised in their new country. Since the mum could barely speak any of the 2 languages of the country she was in she mainly spoke only English to the children whereas the dad would speak in English plus the two main languages of the country. As the mum got more and more ability in the 2 new languages she started to use those a bit with the twins.The twins are now grown up and grew up multi-lingual which is a fantastic life advantage. When they were smaller she told me that they would often use 2 or 3 languages in one sentence.

Hi guys!!Thank you for lovely advices! Pleased so much with a positive response.I have read few articles about bilingual children and sent email to a DR who specialize in that. We will introduce our native language now, and in a year time when our little man goes to nursery he will have opportunity to learn English once again. I am teacher I am confident about teaching...but I think I have just panicked as we are so close to a panel now and Intros!!!

more as a point of interest.Three was a study done and you can only be truly bi- lingual if yo actually learn 2 languages together.if you learn a second language at a later stage you actually learn it in a different part of the brain. some hospitals were used this fact to help troubled people talk about their problems as they could not talk about their isssues in their first language but found it so much easier in a second language which the hospital had taught them.I think it was Kate Cairns who was involved in this at the Royal Free.Other took part in this bt cannot remember who they are. and there was another hospital abroad whose

If you take away the first language fully what will happen if the child is no longer exposed than this can have implications without you realising it. This is well known by children adopted from abroad who have to switch language. Maybe this sounds a bit negative but your child has a bigger chance to have learning disabilities, asd, fasd, attachment disorder etc than non adopted children. Keeping this in mind the plan to take the first language totally away is not a good one. As it can create issues you can do without. Loosing a language goes 3 times quicker than gaining a language and this count for children up to 9! years old. You need to find a way to preserve what is already there. A language is more than the 50 words a one year old knows.The expert you contact need to be an expert in bi lingual children but also children who suffered trauma or have special needs.I am the last one to say do not do it, my children have both special needs and 3 languages are used (through they only use 2, but hear the third and pick up here and there)My youngest lost his birth language in 5 months at the age of 6, this in itself is a huge thing but was unavoidable. Preserving English is very much possible and advisable.There is another point I picked up on and that is that you are sort of sure after a year the child can go to nursery, maybe he can, maybe it is better for attachment that he has one carer. Those things you never know beforehand.Going to nursery is for a lot of adopted children a huge thing, adding the complication that he does not understand the carers is not a wise decision in my opinion.

The current best practice (and e.g. EAL teachers don't always know this, for example, so ignore them) is that if you speak at home a language other than the language around you (so at home you speak French, everyone around you speaks English) you (both parents) should use the home language at home and then they hear the other language everywhere else. Not one of you speak English and the other one another language.All children who grow up in the UK become better at speaking English than their home language, even if they only heard 1 other language till they went to school, they still often forget it by the time they leave school sadly. The best way to keep the home language going is to have some schooling in the home language too (e.g. Polish or Chinese Saturday school).Being bilingual is a wonderful gift and increases children's mental flexibility and their employment opportunities. Go for it!

, even if they only heard 1 other language till they went to school, they still often forget it by the time they leave school sadlyWhere comes this from? It is totally untrue, if the parents take the home language serious and let the children also read and write in the language (and interact with children) they do not forget. How can they? If the parent refuses to communicate with the child in the 'land' language?This happens only if the parents switch language at home or are not language consequent.I want to make the post starter aware of the fact that taking away a language is a huge issue, especially for children with special needs. Having one parent speaking English and the other the home language until the childs starts school is a good compromise to preserve the English language. Sometimes a situation is not ideal but the best possible if you look carefully at the negatives and positives of each situation.

When I was helping out at a childminders one thing I did notice that babies that were even less than 1 year old understood what was being said to them far more than they were able to verbally communicate that understanding back so whilst they may only have a few words in their vocabulary to actually speak back to you I have no idea how many words they actually understand and keep (with meaning attached to them) in their heads.I saw the childminder speak to one of the under 12 month old children who was playing up and whilst that child had very few words she could speak back to the childminder she fully understood what she was being told (ie if you carry on doing xyz you will be put in your pram but if you stop doing xyz you will be allowed to play with the toys)Having read some of the previous posts then I can see why the loss of the original language can be so consequential even at such a very young age.

I have replied yesterday in a hurry, and probably this gave you wrong impression.I am not going to cut out English totally. I am going to focus on learning my language however still giving him chance to hear and learn English. I understand how important for him is to preserve his first language and give him confidence in future to communicate. Just wanted to hear your views, that's all.

Pluto - that's what I'm talking about. If children just speak their home language at home and don't do any education in that language they lose their skills and it's not as good when they come to school leaving age even if it was their only language when they started school. It's hard (but not impossible) for parents to provide enough education in that language to keep it up at an equal level. I actually don't know of any bilingual parents who manage to keep up their home language to the same level as the community language by providing their own educational experiences though I'd love to meet some!When you get two children in a home both speaking English at school they usually speak English to each other at home and can even start to refuse to speak in the home language. Often you find that teenagers will understand their home language but because they've not had any educational experiences in the home language and because they speak English with their friends and siblings, they don't really speak it any more.A child growing up in the UK will learn and maintain their English no matter what is spoken in the home.