Our little man is one now and has begun to make sounds that sound like words.
After the normal dada's and mama's we've had a series of English words such as more, door, and water. He also makes a couple of English animal sounds (horse, dog, sheep).
We spent a few weeks in England over Christmas and I noticed a new understanding of the English language from him. He began to understand a few simple commands or words in a sentence and often repeated a sound that resembled the word we were using. When we returned to Brazil I noticed he was understanding well in English but not in Portuguese. He seemed aware that there were two languages being used but he responded only to English. Now we have been back several weeks I see he is beginning to understand some Portuguese too. When we are out people always talk to him and he seems to understand when they say bye.
As we only speak English with him at home we expected him to speak English first. So far he is meeting our expectations and his language development doesn't seem less than monolingual children of the same age.
We are prepared for his language development to be slower than his peers but maybe we will see it only in Portuguese. I'm also sure we will see a big difference when he begins nursery later this year where he will be surrounded by Portuguese and will learn quickly that he must use that language to be understood.
Nice to hear that Zoe. I think he will understand and speak Portuguese very fast in nursery.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mario, I think he will too.
DeleteWe speak to Nico in Spanish at home and he gets english from nursery, after 3 months in Scotland he speak both of them. At nursery he uses english and with me and his dad spanish.
ReplyDeleteThat''s great to hear - just 3 months and he's able to speak both languages. They adapt much faster than adults :)
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