preemies learning two languages at once?

[vermeil]

Knowing that preemies statistically take longer to learn to talk, I am debating if my baby should be exposed to just one or both languages. I discussed with my neonat doctor; she said for full-term babies it is indeed proven that learning two languages at once is beneficial and typically doesn`t cause any delays. But she believes it`s different for preemies. She didn`t actually recommend against it - she seemed reluctant to do so - but she said he would then take a LOT longer to learn to talk.

Which has me worried obviously. Anyone else have any input?

 

[Agiboma]

sorry i have no advice didnt want to r&r but im also interested in this cause my LO dad wants to teach him his native language, hopefully someone has some input to give

 

[Sakura-chan]

I have to admit I didn`t think twice about this with my son- maybe it is because I already have another child?

I speak English to my boys. Their dad speaks Japanese to them most of the time. I speak Japanese to their dad and we live in Japan. That said, I don`t think I could speak to my kids in Japanese all the time.

He spent the first 6 weeks in hospital in an almost ALL Japanese environment.

Will be interesting to see if he is late to talk, if so how late and whether it will have been the two languages that also didn`t help.

So far my older son is almost 18 months and has about 10-12 words only- all but one is in English.

 

[rensben]

My son was a preeie born at 30 weeks. His dad is french and I am Canadian (english). He is 14 months and only knows how to say to No which sounds like Na. Bilingual children always take longer to speak, preemie or not so i'm not worried about it. Being bilingual is such a gift that I don't mind if it takes him a bit longer. we are in no rush!

 

[Bebica]

Knowing that preemies statistically take longer to learn to talk, I am debating if my baby should be exposed to just one or both languages. I discussed with my neonat doctor; she said for full-term babies it is indeed proven that learning two languages at once is beneficial and typically doesn`t cause any delays. But she believes it`s different for preemies. She didn`t actually recommend against it - she seemed reluctant to do so - but she said he would then take a LOT longer to learn to talk.

Which has me worried obviously. Anyone else have any input?

don't know about that-my baby was preemie(26.5 weeks) who started talking at normal age and walking at 11 mos.she is learning two languages from the get go and she is 10 now speaking i writting second language perfectly.So maybe this is not for all preemies...

 

[AP]

I would think, if my preemie had a simple neonatal stay (so just needed to feed and grow) then I would. But if it was for our Alex, getting her to take in anything is hard enough.

Depends on the baby I think