The bilingual baby: myths vs science
Two languages will not confuse your baby
Many parents worry that giving a baby Arabic and the language of the country they live in will slow speech down or mix the baby up. It is one of the most common questions researchers who study bilingual children hear — and the answer, again and again, is reassuring: babies are built for more than one language.
Reviews of the bilingualism research (Byers-Heinlein & Lew-Williams, 2013) find that bilingual babies reach the same broad language milestones as babies learning only one language, once you count vocabulary across BOTH of their languages together instead of judging each language on its own against a monolingual baby's single language.
Does learning Arabic alongside another language delay a baby's speech?
AcademicPeer-reviewed — Byers-Heinlein K. & Lew-Williams C. (2013), Bilingualism in the Early Years: What the Science Says, LEARNing Landscapes 7(1):95-112Byers-Heinlein K. & Lew-Williams C. (2013), Bilingualism in the Early Years: What the Science Says, LEARNing Landscapes 7(1):95-112
ClinicalAmerican Academy of Pediatrics — American Academy of Pediatrics / HealthyChildren.org, 7 Myths & Facts About Bilingual Children Learning LanguageAmerican Academy of Pediatrics / HealthyChildren.org, 7 Myths & Facts About Bilingual Children Learning Language