The Follow-Up: Raising Multilingual Kids
7/6/202613 min
I'll be honest with you - this episode hit differently for me as a mom. My son is six and learning Spanish in school, and my parents speak our native language with him, but listening back to this conversation with Alicia made me wish we had been more intentional from the start. No guilt though... just real talk about what the research actually says.
Alicia Gandhi is a bilingual speech language pathologist and clinical assistant professor at NYU, and she is the person you want in your corner when it comes to separating fact from fiction on raising kids with multiple languages. There are so many myths floating around out there, from pediatricians, from teachers, from well-meaning family members, and we break them all down.
In this episode we cover:
- The real cognitive benefits of raising bilingual and multilingual kids (hint: it goes way beyond language)
- Why code switching and mixing languages is not confusion - it is actually a sign your child is doing exactly what they should be
- The milestone myth: bilingual kids are not on a different developmental timeline
- Why you should speak your strongest language at home, even if it is not English
- The harmful practice of "forced monolingualism" and who it hurts most
- Whether kids with language delays or disabilities can still be raised multilingual (spoiler: yes)
- What happens when kids enter a new language environment like daycare or school
Want more? Listen to the full, original episode.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMona Amin· Host0:00
Welcome to The Follow-Up. [upbeat music] I'm Dr. Mona, your pediatrician and online mom friend, and this is where we revisit an old favorite episode of the PedsDocTalk Podcast in less time than it takes your toddler to mix Spanish and English, Spanglish, in the same sentence and somehow make it work. Today, we're bringing back a conversation I had with Alycia Gandhi, a bilingual speech language pathologist and clinical assistant professor at NYU, and we talk all about bilingualism and multilingualism. That's a tongueful. [laughs] Full transparency, my own kids are not bilingual, and honestly, this episode made me wish we had started earlier. My son is six and learning Spanish in school, and my parents speak our native language with them, but this conversation really helped separate fact from fiction for so many of you. There are so many myths out there about raising kids with multiple languages, and Alycia and I break them all down, talking about the real benefits and getting into how families can actually approach bilingualism or multilingualism at home. And if this one hits home for you, share it, tag us at ThePedsDocTalkPodcast and @AlyciaBG_SLP, and make sure you download the full episode. Let's get into it. [upbeat music] We're gonna be chatting about bilingualism, multilingualism, and first of all, before we get into the misconceptions you hear, what are some of the benefits? I know you mentioned beautifully already that there's no one superior