7 Ways to SPEAK MORE to Your Baby | How to Raise a Bilingual Baby

How to you raise a bilingual baby from day one? The first thing you need to do is speak to them! But you may worry about whether you are providing enough language input for your baby to become bilingual. This worry is more pronounced for non-native speakers, who naturally produce less speech than native speakers. But don't worry! In this video I give you 7 easy ways to increase the speech your baby hears from you during those exhausted, sleep-deprived days of early parenthood, maximizing the chances of one day having a bilingual baby.
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[@newnaturel137]

Yup that's what i do. I sing all the French songs to my baby and i can see her focusing on my lips movement.

[@alexandrafriedline613]

Really helpful tips! I especially think the one about turning off music and trying to sing directly to your baby instead is a good one. Since I grew up passively hearing Spanish spoken around me but not to me and therefore never learned to speak it/understand it myself in that environment, I really think the importance of direct one on one exposure is so important. But I didn’t really put two and two together until you said it. Passive/background exposure can be helpful to reinforce language learning but not as the foundation for our kiddos. The other tips you gave were helpful too! Our little one should arrive in about 10 weeks, looking forward to rewatching this video and practicing some of these methods. Thanks!

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Thanks for watching this video! Yes, you're exactly right. Everyone (including babies) learning a language needs a communicative need and comprehensible input. Speaking, singing, and interacting with them is perfect for this because we often simplify, repeat, and elaborate our speech. The radio doesn't come close! The language is not really comprehensible and context poor. There is research out there that suggests ambient speech does make some difference, but not to the point we'd hope or for the skills that most concern us. I noticed that before my son spoke much, the only time he seemed to respond to anything on the radio or being said in the background of a phone call was when it was already familiar to him. However, now as a 2.5 year old, he parrots what he hears on the radio sometimes. So I say the music and TV have its place reinforcing new knowledge and providing a native-level speech as a model, its not as useful for babies as actual speech is. The home stretch 🙂! The baby will be here before you know it. I'm glad you think you can use some of these tips!

[@joelturnbull4038]

Books are surprisingly effective. My son has learnt some words just from reading. For example, one book that I have read to him a lot includes the word “Kuss” (German for “kiss”) in it - and that was his only exposure to that word at the time. But one day, while reading this book to him, I got up to the part with “Kuss” in it, and he turned around and imitated a kissing sound to me. After that, I started using the word in new contexts, and he responded to it almost every time. His responses to this word have since died down, but it was a magical moment for me. As always, thanks so much for you inspiration and practical advice. You’re one of the reasons why I persist in bringing up my child bilingually.

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Thanks for watching, Joel. That's so incredible! Keep up what you're doing (pushing him to use new words in different contexts and making those connections) and I know you'll see many more of those moments! The same thing is happening now with my son who has latched on to the expression "incredibly dirty" from a book we read and now thinks it's funny to use it all the time in the funniest ways. I direct him to focus on "incredibly" and add new adjectives with it and it seems to be helping 🙂. I'm so glad that I can be an inspiration to you! That's all I hope for with these videos. Keep going! Don't give up!

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

OMG! As a child I loved 'Vive le vent' by Henri Dès !! LOLL

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Thanks again for watching! We love that exact version too! It's my son's favorite Christmas song!

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

@@LiveYourLanguage hahaha yes I mentioned it because you showed it in the video!!

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

I think you should have mentioned briefly some of the studies that show that consistently later children are less bilingual than their older siblings, to connect that with the impulse to not speak to baby when another child is around. Parents often don't realize they are doing anything different and are surprised by the stark difference.

[@LiveYourLanguage]

I absolutely think this might be the reason why this happens, among other reasons--feeling confident/relaxing standards after success with the first child, exhaustion, distraction (not paying attention to the level/quality of input the child is getting), and the fact that the older child is more likely to have friends and be involved in social activities.

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

@@LiveYourLanguage you're right, I'm sure

[@ngotri1995]

a thank you from Vietnam, really helpful for us

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Thank you so much for watching! I'm glad these tips helped you.

[@ngotri1995]

@@LiveYourLanguage do you have any tip on how to get over awkward feeling taliking to the kid by minority language??

[@LiveYourLanguage]

@@ngotri1995 Thanks for watching! The only tip I have is to keep going, even when it feels wired and then eventually it won't feel wired. In fact, it'll feel wired to speak the majority language! I think it really helped to make sure I spoke French all the time, even when we were around other people and even when I was just murmuring something to myself or maybe, for example, reviewing a shopping list to myself. It's really about getting your mind in the right "language mode," and I think once you are able to do that regularly, the awkward feelings will melt away over time. lt took me a few months before it felt natural. I hope this helps!

[@ngotri1995]

@@LiveYourLanguage thank u alot !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@mayra9834]

Great ideas!

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Glad you like them! Thank you for watching!

[@LyzJGV]

Another great video Stephanie. Thank you so much for sharing these tips and allowing us to indeed put two and two together and optimise our children’s exposure to the minority language. Btw both your sons are “ à croquer” 😊 don’t know if you know this expression. Thanks again and happy new year to you and your family.

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Lily, thank you for watching! I'm so glad you find these tips to be useful. And merci 🙂. It's a little difficult sometimes to include them in videos because all the two year old wants to do it run up to the camera and push all the buttons! I've had to get a little creative and we always have a lot of fun.