My son didn't say his first word until he was 19 months old. He is now almost 2 and his vocabulary has expanded tremendously (around 50 words or so) thanks largely to working diligently with him and a speech therapist. We have found that he is only expressive language delayed. His understanding is actually above average. Also, there is nothing mentally wrong with him--no autism or anything like that. Well, my issue is my mother. She has been trying to teach him Spanish (which she does not speak fluently or even all that well to be honest). I have meekly expressed concerns that because he is already speech delayed in English that she should lay off the Spanish. She thinks she's doing him a tremendous favor by "exposing his young mind to another language". I know that obviously because I am his mother, it's my call on what should happen here, but to back up my request to her that she should stop I would like a little info. My questions are:
1) Is there anyone who know for sure whether or not this is a genuinely bad idea for her to be doing this (and if so do you have a website I could show her?)
and
2) Do you have any advice for how to (nicely) tell her to speak only english around him? (She will probably be slightly offended/hurt because she thinks she's doing this wonderful thing for him, but I know the request coming from me will make her reaction worse than it would coming from anyone else. That's just sort of the nature of our relationship).
BTW, I would have no issue whatsoever with him learning Spanish if he didn't have speech problems. Just thought I'd throw that out there
Thank you in advance for your advice!
1) Is there anyone who know for sure whether or not this is a genuinely bad idea for her to be doing this (and if so do you have a website I could show her?)
and
2) Do you have any advice for how to (nicely) tell her to speak only english around him? (She will probably be slightly offended/hurt because she thinks she's doing this wonderful thing for him, but I know the request coming from me will make her reaction worse than it would coming from anyone else. That's just sort of the nature of our relationship).
BTW, I would have no issue whatsoever with him learning Spanish if he didn't have speech problems. Just thought I'd throw that out there
Thank you in advance for your advice!