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Bilingual Family
Hi-
We adopted Jack from Colombia a year ago and are raising him bilingually. His father speaks to him (and reads to him) in Spanish (his native language) and I speak/read to him in English.
Studies have shown that young children (before the age of 11 months) are developing language and it is possible for a child to "learn/aquire" any language (or two). Children associate a "language" with the person speaking it...So "Mommy speaks like this and Daddy speaks like that".
The trick is being consistant and also finding ways to provide your child with literacy (not just spoken language but written) in both languages. Your child will always be stronger in the language of the community in which he or she grows up. As the parent, you need to be sure that they also get the "content" and "literacy" support in their second language.
Research studies have also shown that bilingual children are slightly behind monolingual children in their initial language development; however, they are shown to have a better comprehension of abstract concepts (i.e. they can separate a "word" from the thing that it represents). So there is definately a great pay off for the very slight delay.
We wish you the best of luck!
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