The Bilingual Toddler

Is it okay for a toddler 2 – 4 years of  age to be exposed to two different languages - to be bilingual? Is learning to speak two languages at once okay for his brain and language development?

Young children's brains are very open to the sounds and patterns of language. Toddlers are indeed capable of learning two languages simultaneously as long as they are in a consistent relationship with a nurturing care provider who speaks each language. This does not mean that an individual provider necessarily needs to be bilingual. It means, for example, that the care provider may speak English to the toddler when engaged in her care - and Mom and Dad have agreed that this is what they want. Likewise, Mom and Dad will speak in Hebrew when they interact with their toddler, or Mom may speak English and Dad may speak Hebrew. Consistency is the key. The toddler needs a reliable language partner when speaking and learning each particular language.

In today's world bilingualism is a skill to be valued and supported when it is the goal of the toddler's family. Infants are quite capable of learning two languages from birth. They begin life with the ability to hear the differences among the sounds of many languages. Any "foreign" sounds a child continues to hear reinforce the brain connections used to process them, so he will retain the ability to perceive and produce them. By 2-3 years, toddlers are very capable of using each language with different people in different contexts - for example, speaking Hebrew with the care provider and English with Mom and Dad, or speaking English with Mom and Hebrew with Grandma.

A key requirement for language learning is that it takes place in the context of a nurturing relationship. Furthermore, while the brain is especially open to the different languages at this age, it is not necessarily easy to learn more than one language, nor does it mean that the learning will take place overnight. Many factors influence how well and quickly a toddler will become bilingual, including the strength of the parents' motivation to make the child bilingual, the amount of time the child spends in the care of each language partner, how secure the toddler feels in having her needs met, and how well the care provider and toddler are able to communicate in the given language.

Remember: a toddler exposed to two languages is dealing with two very different systems of communication. While she is capable of doing this, her progress in each may appear a bit slower than if she were communicating in only one language.