{"id":7267,"date":"2025-12-12T12:47:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nicolemaina.com\/?p=7267"},"modified":"2026-04-13T12:26:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:26:01","slug":"my-child-understands-me-but-doesnt-speak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nicolemaina.com\/en\/my-child-understands-me-but-doesnt-speak\/","title":{"rendered":"My child understands me, but doesn\u2019t speak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This situation can feel incredibly frustrating. I know it well myself, because my own son used to answer me in Italian whenever I spoke to him in German. So what can you do when a child understands the second language but always responds in the dominant one? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How can I motivate my child to speak?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Surround your child with lots of materials in your language<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This may sound obvious, but it\u2019s essential to immerse your child in the language, so keep plenty of materials of that language in your home.Books are a fundamental tool for providing high-quality, varied linguistic input, and it\u2019s important that you read to your child out loud, ideally in a way that they can see your facial expressions and the movements of your mouth. Non-verbal language is an essential part of communication (trust me, I\u2019m an interpreter!), and this helps them reproduce sounds that they can imitate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depending on your child\u2019s age, audiobooks or storytelling toys (which often exist in many languages) are also helpful. Children can use them with you, or alone when you\u2019re not around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your child is old enough, cartoons and children\u2019s programs in your language work well too.Maybe you\u2019ve chosen to limit screen time in your family, but remember: this exposure is enriching. It provides additional input that your child needs to reach bilingualism. Every show offers new voices, accents, topics, and vocabulary that differ from yours, but are easy for children to grasp through context. Even a simple cartoon can provide a lot of linguistic variety.
A simple rule of thumb: Replace screen time in the dominant language with the same amount in your language.
Use interactive materials <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For children ages 3\u20134 and up, interactive toys or books with audio pens are fantastic.
Personally, I really like Ravensburger\u2019s TipToi<\/em> (no affiliation \u2014 just a recommendation!). With the pen, children tap images to hear the text read aloud, listen to rhymes or songs, solve riddles, find objects, identify letters and numbers, and more. Choose topics that genuinely interest your child; their curiosity will increase their motivation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These activities are extremely helpful for comprehension, but they are unidirectional: the child listens and receives input, but the interaction is mostly passive. To activate language and encourage speaking, your child needs activities that involve interaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tap into your child\u2019s interests and create interaction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Research shows <\/a>(and intuition confirms)<\/a> that learning happens where interaction happens.
Add strong personal interest into the mix, and the game is literally won. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your child\u2019s interests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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    Make a list of everything your child is currently passionate about. Unicorns? Dinosaurs? Pirates? Building with LEGOs? Playing \u201cstore\u201d every day with a pretend cash register and credit card? <\/p>\n\n\n\n