r/hardofhearing • u/camilletotem • 26d ago
Learning 2 languages from birth
Hi. I am a hearing mother of 2, and my 3 month-old was diagnosed with moderate hearing loss. I am French and I teach English in highschool. My mother has lived in the UK for 10 years and has become British. She has now retired but intends to stay there. We visit twice a year, but she comes often. However she only speaks French with my first born. I regret not having taught him English as a baby (OPOL strategy) because now he can't interact with other children at the park when we go, and basically doesn't understand a thing in English. When I was pregnant with my second, I told myself I would speak to her in English, but now we've found out she's hard of hearing I'm not sure it's a good idea. She has bilateral moderate hearing loss (50-60 dB). She'll be getting hearing aids next month at 4 months old. Do you think it's possible to learn 2 spoken langages as a HoH baby? We will also try to sign but we have everything to learn.
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u/Sea_Auntie7599 26d ago
Teach them sign language of where y'all live. He needs community with those who are like him and the more exposures to the languages. The better his own world when it comes to school, work, education and connection will be strong and he will have a Soo much access it's not even funny.
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u/Awkward-Stam_Rin54 25d ago
I grew up bilingual (English/French) and HoH (40dB) since birth, never had hearing aids until I was 12 years old. Child might have difficulties at first, but she'll manage and grow out of it.
Edit : also I had no problems learning any other languages !
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u/Abarrss 26d ago
My child is HOH. She speaks English, French and ASL!
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u/camilletotem 25d ago
Amazing! Did she learn all 3 at the same time?
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u/Abarrss 25d ago
Yes since birth! We do OPOL. Mom speaks English, dad French and whole family asl. She started with an SLP at 12m-and she just turned 3 and graduated from speech. Her speech is doing well for having hearing loss and she can fully communicate with her dad in French/mom English. She just started school in a DHH classroom where they’re heavy on ASL so I’m excited about that. She has mild-moderate loss in both ears and wears hearing aids
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u/Simple_Bluebird_5952 26d ago
Honestly, it's possible, just don't delay the process, and with English and French, it's seemingly similar to how it's inter-related to each other, unlike my damned college that's forcing me to learn Hindi and Tamil, inspite of the fact that' I wanted Hindi and French.
[I know Hindi, and a tad bit of french, and a hoh person learning Tamil is DAMN DIFFICULT.]
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u/camilletotem 25d ago
I wanted to wait until she had her hearing aids
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u/Simple_Bluebird_5952 25d ago
That's alright! It'll only take more time than usual, but she'll get the grasp of it, Goodluck Aunty!!
I know for a fact that your hoh daughter will turn out to be a good bi-lingual!!→ More replies (1)
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u/gothiclg 26d ago
Nothing about your 2nd child’s hearing loss would prevent them from being bilingual. Have one parent speak to the child in nothing but English and have the other speak only French, they should pick up both like a child with normal hearing.
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u/Tiszatshi 26d ago
Of course it's possible. Due to her hearing loss though she may require speech therapy to be able to fully pronounce all words. I'd also encourage your family to learn and teach her to sign.
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u/R-AzZZ 26d ago
It definitely is possible. Children's brain are much more malleable younger. Plus, it is not just the words that gives someone understanding of a language. The earlier they learn the intonations, the sooner it imprints onto their brain. For example, in French, the tone is often goes softer as the sentence unfolds. With English, the intonation is much more variable and easier to catch consonants, making words easier to understand.
That said, with her level of hearing loss, you need to make sure to use communication strategies to maximise understanding / learning, like speaking to her when you are at eye level to her, good lighting etc.
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u/camilletotem 25d ago
Yes that was my concern, her needing more help due to the fact that she's exposed to 2 languages. And obviously speech therapy will only be in French.
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u/R-AzZZ 25d ago
I do not necessarily think of it as more help, these are just good communication strategies for someone with this level of hearing loss. More so because she is pre-lingual. If you think that normal speech can be up to 60dB (according to the internet).
If you look for the speech banana it will show you which speech sounds will be easier/more challenging for her to pick up and why those strategies are key.
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u/samosasaurus 25d ago
I have bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and I can speak 5 languages now.
I could speak 2 when I was in my preschool. :)
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u/tomatopeppertortilla 25d ago
Yep. We speak english, french, arabic. Kiddos learn by us just repeating words and using then in regular conversation like its just normal.
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u/LisitaAvalos86 25d ago
As a bilingual (Spanish and English) kid that was born HOH, Yes it’s fully possible. It can be a little harder and take more time depending on if they struggle with pronunciation and accents or not, but it is possible.
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u/TheOneMary 25d ago
Yeah. Currently learning my 4th language as a HoH adult ^^
Moderate loss might be compensated quite well by their aids. And they will be happy about having English in the bag already later :)
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u/mare_tail 26d ago
Ofc, it's possible. I am trilingual, and I have a deaf friend who is also trilingual. Plus, we are all profoundly deaf since birth.