If Your Child Stops Talking in Another Language, Watch This

If your child is shutting down when you’re practicing another language, you might be able to fix it with one easy rule. 

Hi, I’m Adelaide from TalkBox.Mom where we help families to start talking in another language the same day you start the program. 

One toxic behavior that accidentally slips in when people learn another language is “correcting someone as they speak.”

Now you might be absolutely surprised and think that’s not toxic at all—that’s what you need to do to help someone speak another language.

Not so. It’s doing the opposite of what you intend. A toxic behavior hinders someone from becoming their best self, and correcting someone as they speak does just that.

Think of the child that gets their nerve up to say something in a foreign language, and then is immediately corrected for not saying it good enough. That child, or even spouse, is going to be less likely to try the next time.

Every time they try, you let them know it’s not good enough, so why would they want to keep trying?

How do you help them improve if you’re not constantly correcting them?

First, you implement the adorable baby rule.

Think of a baby who finally says their first word, “Ba.” As a parent, do you say, “Um it’s ball, you’re saying it wrong?”

No, of course not. You get out your phone and make a video. You send it to everyone, letting your friends and family know they said their first word. You celebrate!

Are you noticing the contrast with your child saying their first word in another language?  Or do you remember that cute period when they were little and they said things almost right, but it wasn’t right was so it was adorable?

Like “pasketti” instead of “spaghetti.”

This is the adorable baby rule. If you wouldn’t say your thought to an adorable baby, don’t say it at all.

But think of this, if a baby asked for “wa wa” for water but was pointing to a ball, you would clarify and ask, “Do you want water?”

This is an appropriate question for an adorable baby. You don’t just ignore mistakes.

So what are you doing? Well you’re not saying, “You called a ball water.” You’re actually modeling back correct language. 

When the baby says “Ba,” you say, “Here’s your ball.” Your baby is hearing the correct language without being corrected. 

So if your child accidentally says “Quieres uvas,” (You want grapes) as they’re trying to say “I want grapes,” you can say, “Quiero uvas tambien.” (I also want grapes.)

Or you can say, “I love that you used your phrase!” Compliment their effort not the results. We never need to lie and say they sounded great. 

Then you can play the native speaker audio again in the TalkBox.Mom Companion App so you, too, can use the phrase. This helps you to model back the correct language while energizing them to keep going.

They don’t need to be perfect when they start. But they do need to feel safe so that they can keep trying.

It’s hard to improve if you want to give up. So always check with the adorable baby rule before making a comment that you’ll regret.