Keep Your Language Alive

Bilingualism is perfectly normal and most children will have the ability to be good at both their home language and English. Children will pick up English naturally through school or through speaking to other family members. Please also see our Frequently asked questions. 

The important thing is to help your child to enjoy communicating in any language and by speaking to your child in your own mother tongue, you are keeping a language alive in the next generation of your family and providing your child with an enriched cultural experience.

• Talk to your child in your own language. This will provide a solid foundation upon which additional languages can be learnt
• Learning more than one language is good for general learning
• Enjoy your language, it is important for your social and cultural identity.

So, use your language to:

• Sing nursery rhymes and songs. This helps to develop children’s early language skills
• Talk about books with your child and make up stories. Your local library will be able to help you find books in different languages
• Talk to your child about what is happening during the day, e.g. at bath time, when shopping, cleaning etc. You can talk to your child, even when they are too little to understand or talk back to you   
• Talk about things your child shows an interest in.  You will then both be focusing on the same things. This will help your child to understand what you are saying.

Remember to:

• Look at your child as you talk. This helps him/her to see your facial expression and how you form words
• Make ‘Special time’ for you and your child when you can play together. Get rid of any distractions, e.g. TV, radio, phone etc, and watch to see what your child does with the toys. Give words for what your child is doing
• Give lots of opportunities and time for your child to respond to you, e.g. you might say something and they might babble back or giggle. Answer your baby’s noises or babble.

Your home language is important. It is part of you and your children/s identity. To keep this alive:

• Try to let your child have times when he/she can play with other children who speak your language
• Don’t be frightened to use your language in public
• Make sure your child knows the different names of languages he/she speaks
• Help your child to feel proud of their language/s. This will help them develop a strong cultural identity
• If your child prefers to use English words, you can still respond and repeat back what they have said in your own language.

What to do if you still have concerns that your child is not talking well for his/her age:

• Try not to feel anxious. Children learning more than one language sometimes start speaking a bit later than children only learning English, but they normally catch up
• Speak to your Health Visitor. They can give you advice or direct you to a drop-in group to speak informally with a Speech and Language Therapist.

If you would like more information on this Health Promotion campaign, or the leaflets (available in a range of languages) and resources linked with it, please contact us by email: andrea.raja@southwarkpct.nhs.uk