Growing up speaking two languages Raising a Bilingual Child: The Top 5 Myths | Healthy Hispanic Living

There are many myths about growing up a dual language speaker that is important for parents to be aware of. Many parents have concerns about exposing their children to two different languages when growing up due to the fact that it can cause delays in their language skills. There has been research indicating that bilingualism will not make the child’s language delayed. In fact children who are learning dual languages actually are building their language skills at the same rate as monolingual children. Another myth about bilingualism is that a bilingual child can mix up the two languages. It is important to note that mixing languages is common for children to use both languages when speaking as it is called code switching. Bilingual children are often code switching for the purpose of not knowing the word in the right language or if there is a phrase that is not transferable to the other language. It is not a concern that code switching will impair a bilingual child’s language ability.