Will my babies stutter??

I just read an interesting article in the Washington Post that made me a bit nervous.  It spoke of kids who were taught more than one language before they started school (at 4 or 5) being more likely to stutter than kids that learned a second language after the age of 5.  

Interestingly enough, it seems that the stuttering tended to begin between ages 4 and 5, and several of the children only stuttered in one of the languages.  This often occurred when the children had problems with one language, or perhaps "refused" to speak one of the languages.

The good news is that children "outgrow" stuttering, and it seems that more children who speak one language exclusively at home "recovered" from stuttering than did children who (I can only imagine) had a family that used the OPOL method.

We're down to the wire!!!

As Victor's birthday quickly approaches (I can't believe he'll be one TOMORROW!!!), I think we've decided on an approach. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right??

Here we go! Our "base" is MLAH, with some "tweaking".

Basically, Oscar and I agree that our family will inevitably change over the years, and we want to use a dynamic method that will still encourage our family to become bilingual.

Sooooo... while the kiddos are young (really, as long as we practically can, but probably until they are in school), we will primarily speak to them in Spanish. I say "primarily" because if we are with friends/family who do not speak Spanish, we will defer to English. Also, there will be activities (songs, rhymes, books, etc) that will we will do in English. Finally, I am realistic that there are limits to my speaking in Spanish (the aforementioned "language headaches"), so there may be times that I revert back to English.

As they grow, have friends that do not speak Spanish and go to school, we will have to re-evaluate. Perhaps we will follow a strict MLAH at that point, not sure yet. At that time, our hope is that we can find some activities where they will need to speak in Spanish and they can interact more with their primos and abuelos in Spain.

Variations on Minority Language at Home

The purist will say that MLAH means that when the child is with one (or both) parents, the minority language will be spoken. Surely that's an option, but can we be more flexible? I'll be honest--speaking in Spanish all day, every day gives me a headache!

Brainstorming with Oscar, we thought of a few different ways we could implement MLAH:

1. The above mentioned "strict" approach--anytime we speak with our kids, it will be in Spanish.

2. Like my mom's family, we could take to heart the "at home" part--speaking Spanish inside the house--but once we step outside that door, we are in English.

3. We could base the language on the environment and company we keep. For example, generally when we are together--Spanish. However, if we are with American friends (even in our home)--English. If we are visiting Spain--Spanish. At my parents house--English. At school--English. etc.

4. We could also vary our approach based on age. While they are still babies, we will primarily speak to them in Spanish. However, as they get older, we could speak to them more in English, still depending on where we are, who we are with, etc. At this point, we would also need to "immerse" them in Spanish for periods of time (i.e. visiting their abuelos, Spanish school/extracurriculars, etc.) to make sure they maintain the Spanish.

Right now, our favorite option so far is a combo of #3 and #4.

In preparation for my deadline of Victor's first birthday (9 days and counting!), I have been trying to speak to him primarily in Spanish, especially while we are in the house. I slip a bit, mostly in the late afternoon/evening when I'm tired, but I'm hoping it will become more automatic and natural. Keep your fingers crossed!

The Family Language / Community Language Method

A second, highly recommended way to encourage your family to become bilingual uses what are called the "Family Language" and "Community Language". This method also goes by other names such as "Minority Language at Home" (ML@H or MLaH), Foreign Home Pattern, etc.

Basically, when the parents are alone with the kid(s), they use the "family language" and when others are around, the "community language" is used. There are several variations on this (for example, using the family language only inside the house and the community language while out and about, etc)


Again with the "Pros" and "Concerns":

PROS:
1. This method, like OPOL, is extremely common and encourages an active use of both languages.

2. It will allow the entire family to speak in both languages, using the environment as the driver. It is said to be one of the most consistent of the methods as the child hears and interacts with both parents in both languages from birth.

3. Again, I know that this works--from my very own family!:

My mother is from Latvia, but left when she was a small child. Her parents used this method with her and her sister and they still speak Latvian to this day (this is especially encouraging as Latvian is not the most common language and they were not able to visit their home country for over 40 years!)

4. This method relieves one of my concerns with OPOL in that we will not be alienating friends and family by speaking to our children in a language they cannot understand. It will also be easy to be consistent speaking with my husband as we will not need to "pick" a language (as in OPOL).


CONCERNS:

1. I am already seeing that the vocabulary varies depending on if we are at home or if we are in the park, at a restaurant, with friends, etc. I can only imagine that once the little guys start school their English vocabulary will have a different focus (notebooks, pop quiz, etc) than what they use with us and vice versa. How can we even this out? (note to self: once I learn that, I'll need to apply that to my life. There are still words/stories that are more automatic for me in one language or another!)

2. According to my reading, if you follow this method strictly, your child will lag behind during the first 6 months of school until the other language "kicks in". Will this give our children a disadvantage?