Three strategies to help you raise a bilingual child

Living in South Florida, we’re used to hearing people talk multiple languages and for many it starts at a young age. Becoming bilingual, however, can come with its challenges, especially for families with diverse backgrounds. However, there are benefits and best practices for raising a bilingual baby.

Bienvenidos a la casa de los Wheelers. Here, you’ll smell the Chilean culture, see the American influence and hear two languages at once.

Cristina is from Chile and her husband, Anthony, is what she calls her “gringo”. He’s American and was born in South Carolina.

“Once we met, we slowly but surely, started pulling in words and started watching telenovelas together,” said Anthony Wheeler.

The Wheeler home is a reflection of many homes here in South Florida. A blend of languages, backgrounds, traditions. Cristina and Anthony live in Miramar with their two children and their in-laws.

Their children, now 13 and 17 years old, were raised speaking both Spanish and English and while they learned, so did dad.

“It was a little challenging, at first, especially when the kids were born, people were in my ear like ‘no, teach them just Spanish but I was like I can’t because my husband is a gringo,” said Cristina Wheeler.

“Children that are so young, learn way quicker than us adults because their mind is so flexible and malleable that that’s why it’s better that we teach them at a younger age,” said Jacqueline Lopez, who works as a bilingual and language speech pathologist in Miami.

She says it can be challenging to raise a child to speak more than one language, but it’s immensely beneficial.

“There’s evidence that shows that children and adults who are bilingual, they have increased problem solving skills as well as increased creativity, and it also shows that there's a different appreciation for different cultures and an understanding for different cultures,” continued Lopez.

There are many approaches to achieving bilingualism even when only one parent speaks the target language.

‘One thing that they can do that’s very easy is that mom sticks to one language, dad sticks one language and they are receiving both languages and receiving both models,” encouraged Lopez.

It’s called the One Parent, One Language (OPOL) method. Another approach is Time and Place.

“We talk in English all day, but in bath time, we're going to speak in Spanish, and then that will just give them a lot of exposure as well to different common objects, common words,” said Lopez.

The goal is consistency and repetition and as much as Spanglish is the unofficial language of South Florida, Lopez cautions it can be confusing for the little ones.

“We want to do, “please go get the cup in the kitchen, busca el vaso en la cocina” so they learn this is the rules and regulations, this is the grammar, this is the syntax and then once they’re masters at it then it’s okay,” said Lopez.

“I think it’s important because we live in Florida and I want to be able to communicate people very well and make really good friends despite the language barrier,” said 13-year-old Anthony Wheeler who was raised learning both languages.

“I think it’s also important to sort of include medias in the background, like music, television,” said Abigail Wheeler, 17.

It’s also suggested to learn on resources like books, programs, all in the target language. While there are various ways to incorporate the language, choose the best approach that will fit your family and makes it enjoyable, consistent, and sustainable.

“I I love being Hispanic, I love celebrating my Hispanic culture, I love bringing it to my children,” said Wheeler.

Lopez says it is a common misconception that teaching a baby more than one language could cause speech delays.

Geovanna Soberon found a need for Spanish playgroups, so she created one and now it’s turned into something so big larger.

“I started in the parks, as a playgroup, that was just the idea, just being a simple playgroup,” said Soberon. “Then, people started asking for more. Let’s do events, let’s do this, let’s do that and it blew my mind all these families looking for this space,” she said.

Soberon has always been involved in the community, but she wanted that community to be more reflective of her culture, heritage, tradition, and language as she raised her two young children.

“We started facing some challenges, I realized it wasn’t enough to speak to him [son] in Spanish so I wanted him not only to be fluent in Spanish, but I wanted him to appreciate our culture, appreciate the fact that he’s bilingual so I was like how are we going to help our son to do that?,” said Soberon.

That is when Groupito was born. The term translates to little group in Spanish, and it was created in June of this year. El Groupito meets weekly with events and activities to help foster the Spanish language for children.

“For Mother’s Day, many events for mothers are in English but then we create one in Spanish for Father’s day that was our first event. So if we don’t find them then we create them. It’s not easy, it takes a lot of organization,” said Soberon.

As Geo’s 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter are learning so is her husband, Gary, who is Italian and Polish.

“He’ll [son] speak English to me and immediately turn to my wife and speak Spanish and she’ll speak Spanish to him, I’ll speak English to him and it’s happening like rapid fire, like back and forth so it’s very interesting,” said Geo’s husband, Gary Troyanowski

In September, the group hosted a bilingual storytelling event with tremendous turnout.

“It’s great exposure for her to be around bilingual kids especially in a world where she’s just surrounded by the English language,” said Sarah Morrison who hopes to raise her 3-year-old daughter, Lily, the way she was.

The parents and children attend a monthly Spanish nature walk in Broward Parks called Niños en La Naturaleza. It’s not just knowing the language that’s important for these families but being proud of it.

“My grandfather would tell me like, hey, how come we don’t speak Italian or Polish and he’s like during that time his father would say you have to assimilate otherwise you can’t work, you can’t live you can’t put food on the table so having a foreign language wasn’t a desirable thing whereas today it is,” said Gary.

“The big picture of Groupito is to celebrate bilingualism in all languages not just in Spanish and English,” said Soberon.

Geo says she has been approached from moms across the country who are interested in starting their own Groupito in their respective cities. Geo says these groups aren’t just important for the kids but the parents who have to model the language.