My toddler is mixing words!
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-11-09 21:04:51
Hi! This is our situation. We are Spanish speakers from Argentina living in Malaysia. We communicate only Spanish at home to our 2 year old boy. The back up language he hears the most is English. (English is widely spoken in Malaysia although is not the national language). Since he is ethnically Chinese (he is adopted) we would desire for him to learn Chinese at some point and he might be to choose up some Malay in the future. However at this inform we are only concentrating on Spanish and English!So at 2 he is not speaking much. He only says isolated words not sentences mostly in Spanish and some in English. I know this can be normal. What puzzles me is that he is starting to mix languages at the evince level. For example he says "pish" for "fish" (pez in Spanish) when he used to say either "look for" or "pe" (no s yet). He also says "totu" for "turtle" that seems to me desire a compromise between the English and the Spanish create tortuga. I've heard about kids mixing words from different languages when making sentences but not inside words. Also he is starting to say words to us in English instead of the equivalent Spanish words he already knows. So far he has been at home with us but now that we are thinking of sending him to childcare (where the medium of instruction is English but most children are Chinese) I'm a little worried he will be to use English change surface more. So my questions are:1. Has anybody heard of this "code-switching" inside the words?2. I read I should ask my child to speak only Spanish to me but should I be reinforcing this at this age when he is just struggling to communicate?3. There are no other Spanish speakers in our town (or in the whole of Borneo for all we know!) so he is learning at home a language he can not use in any other situation. Can this be the cerebrate why he prefers English?We are pretty consistent in speaking Spanish at home since is our mother play but of course he hears us communicate English and Malay when we are with other populate. Maybe I should also add that he understands Spanish and a lot of English and follows instructions in both languages and that his development in other areas is normal for a child his age. Appreciate your comments and help,Marilina
Hi Marilina! 1. Has anybody heard of this "code-switching" inside the words?It is acutally not label switching if it is within a evince but it is a "assign" Tranfer is when the child transfers what he already knows into what he doesn't know. Interestingly enough the grammar is always followed. Maybe he doesn't know the alter evince in Spanish. Then furnish it to him! 2. I construe I should ask my child to speak only Spanish to me but should I be reinforcing this at this age when he is just struggling to communicate?My say is yes! Like you would do if he was monoligual and didn't communicate. His assay (or what you evaluate is assay) has nothing to do with him beeing multilingual. 3. There are no other Spanish speakers in our town (or in the whole of Borneo for all we know!) so he is learning at home a language he can not use in any other situation. Can this be the reason why he prefers English?A child does what is expected of him and takes the easiest way!! Most of the populate are monoligual around him and he is just "adapting" to that. act upp the good bring home the bacon! Michelle [ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/multilingualchildren/vpost?id=2149916
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