Can teaching French or another language to toddlers result in a speech delay?
According to linguistic experts Kendall King, PhD, and Alison Mackey, PhD, both of Georgetown University in the US, “one of the most common misconceptions about early language learning is that it will result in language delay.” A wide range in age is natural for children learning to speak for the first time—anywhere from 8 to 16 months. Teaching French to your child, or some other second language, does not change this time frame. Dr King and Dr Mackey state, “There is no scientific evidence to show that hearing two, three or more languages leads to delays…On average, bilinguals and monolinguals enter the one-word and two-word stages, for instance, at around the same time.” Dr Johanne Paradis of the University of Alberta, a specialist on early bilingual education, also finds no reason to worry about bilingual education causing speech delay. She notes, “This is something we hear all the time–that parents are often worried about raising their kids bilingually because the kids will face
