Are speech delays caused by teaching Spanish or another second language to toddlers?
According to linguistic experts Kendall King, PhD, and Alison Mackey, PhD, “one of the most common misconceptions about early language learning is that it will result in language delay.” Children begin speaking their first language anywhere from 8 to 16 months, a very wide range in age, and teaching Spanish or another second language to a child does not alter this. Dr. King and Dr. Mackey report, “There is no scientific evidence to show that hearing two, three or more languages leads to delays…On average, bilinguals and monolinguals enter the one-word and two-word stages, for instance, at around the same time.” At an early age, bilingual and monolingual children are believed to acquire new vocabulary at roughly the same rate. Very young bilinguals typically know the same number of words overall; but the total pool of words may initially be split between two languages. Even so, Dr. King and Dr.
