Is it normal for a multilingual child to learn to read slower?

[tomorrow]

Hi, I don't know anyone to ask this question. My family doctor is really chilled about her development. But I'm getting worried as she is going to 1st grade this year.

My daughter's case is a bit unusual. She is 5.5 yo, born in the US. Her dad and I both speak Mandarin and English but we keep it mostly Mandarin at home. We moved to Montreal, Quebec when she was 3.5. Where French is mandatory in public schools. It has been 2 years since she lives here, she went to a bilingual daycare for a year and started French K for 7 months. Now she can fluently speak English, Mandarin, and French (ranked by fluency). She speaks English to her fellows, Mandarin at home, and French to her teachers. But only French spelling and letters are taught in school, She started French late so I don't have any problem with her French level.

The thing is that she can't read, in any language at this moment, not even read a simple word other than her name. We've been reading to her in both Chinese and English, it seems she doesn't get any interest in letters. We also try to teach her basic phonics for a long time but she's been having a really hard time learning it. Now it has become one of her least favorite time (( We do encourage her a lot at learning.

In contrast, we spend a little bit of time teaching her simple Math, it seems so easy for her to understand Math. She can easily add and subtract numbers under 20. Even solving some simple multiply and dividing problem. I think she is pretty smart at Math and logic.

I know she is still pretty young. I don't know if I need to get concerned at this point?

 

[longroad]

@tomorrow It’s so normal for us to worry about everything, and you’re right to consult parents of other multilingual children, as it’s difficult to compare to monolingual milestones.

You do not need to be concerned that a 5 1/2-year-old isn’t reading. You mention having already taught phonics “for a long time”. At 5 1/2! At this age, it’s good to help children develop in areas they’re showing active interest in, as your brilliant trilingual daughter has done with math. You mention that’s she’s already showing resistance to learning to read, which is a good sign to hit the brakes if you want her to enjoy reading.

An anecdote, because they’re statistically irrelevant but often interesting: my friend’s parents taught her to read at the age of 4. My parents read piles of books to me, but didn’t try to teach me anything before I was learning it in school. By 4th grade my friend was reading at a 5th grade level, while I was reading at a college level.

 

[all]

@longroad Had to scroll so far to see this! Yes a 5 1/2 year old won't necessarily know how to read!!! It's SO early. Like with everything it needs to click. Children should play.

 

[tomorrow]

@all Play is her major job. I only spend like 10 mins here and there teaching her

 

[johnnyhudson]

@tomorrow In Germany, the kids do not learn to read or write until first grade. No teaching of sight words or anything like that in Kindergarten. When they start school they only have to be able to write their name, hold a pen correctly and that's it. The primary school teachers actually prefer if they come as a blank slate, because then they can teach them properly from the start. I know the expectations in North America are different, but she will learn, at least roman letters.

 

[tomorrow]

@johnnyhudson

In Germany, the kids do not learn to read or write until first grade. No teaching of sight words or anything like that in Kindergarten. When they start school they only have to be able to write their name, hold a pen correctly and that's it. The primary school teachers actually prefer if they come as a blank slate, because then they can teach them properly from the start. I know the expectations in North America are different, but she will learn, at least roman letters.

wow it's really different in Europe. I think German got one of the best early education amount the world,

 

[zakhan]

@tomorrow Not in Europe, in Germany. We are a German/American family and we moved to Spain last year a few months before our older daughter turned 6. In Spain they also start learning to read and write in preschool. At the international school (most instruction is in English) she has made massive progress with reading and writing (coming from just knowing how to write her capital ABC's) but is still catching up to her peers in reading fluency. I know they start earlier in France as well and I assume also in Italy. It's possible that the systems in Scandinavia, Switzerland and possibly the Netherlands are similar to the German system but I'm just generalising...

 

[all]

@tomorrow Please don't worry! She's on her own schedule. And 5 is young.

 

[oldaussie]

@tomorrow Parent in a bilingual household here (German/English in US). I also work at an educational publisher and was on a foundational skills project for several years so I've learned a lot about learning to read.

It's definitely normal for MLLs (multilingual learners) to take longer to learn to read. That said, MLLs and students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties still deserve support as early as possible.

My kiddo is a year older and she's struggled with reading. She's getting it but much slower than her peers. Same with days of the week (because she heard them in two languages and it's such an abstract concept until a kid is in school). The school has her in a remediation program after school and we've hired a tutor as well. It's helping. Slowly.

In kindergarten she was struggling with counting and so we switched to English when taking about numbers at home and if she ever wanted TV she got number blocks. Soon enough she caught up. This year she's in a bilingual immersion where math and science are in German so she had a little leg up since she could already count.

Last anecdote for you: One of my dear friends is Canadian, raised in Quebec in an English speaking home. She was sent to a school that taught in French only, knowing no French when she started and with no support at home. She says she essentially couldn't read until third grade. Eventually she did and constantly reminds me that my daughter will get there, too.

Caveat: Look for markers of dyslexia, because support will be different in those cases.

 

[tomorrow]

@oldaussie Your friend’s story sounds sad and somehow amusing at the same time. At what age I should consider the signs of dyslexia?

 

[aldredian]

@tomorrow These links might help.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dyslexia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353552

https://dyslexia.yale.edu/dyslexia/signs-of-dyslexia/

https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/dyslexia

https://www.centremosaique.ca/en/services-for-children/dyslexia-dysorthographia/

I also found these articles around dyxlexia in Chinese which, unsurprisingly, is different to English.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40474-018-0149-y

https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/dyslexia-in-japanese-and-chinese/

https://blogs.scientificamerican.co...a-has-big-differences-in-english-and-chinese/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40474-018-0149-y

Some of these links I can't verify the scientific backing around it. Just thought it might help for more digging.

 

[tomorrow]

@aldredian Merci! I feel like a idiot asking for those links

 

[oldaussie]

@tomorrow They flagged my kiddo for reading intervention a month and a half after first grade started. It was based on her teacher's observations and an assessment called iReady. They start reading CVC words (consonant vowel consonant, like cat, big, red) in the second half of kindergarten here and she was running behind then, too.

But to my knowledge, that's a pretty progressive timeline. Lots of schools aren't buying into the science of reading yet (learn phonics and have people read complex texts to the kid to improve comprehension and vocabulary). Other US states have passed laws to support students with dyslexia, which is great. But I have no idea what it's like in Canada.

People with dyslexia have a lot more success learning to read using phonics. Heck, I'm betting most people do.

As for detection, someone replied with tons of helpful links. For one of my colleagues (works in the ed space and has a child with dyslexia), the big indicator seemed to be consistently not recognizing words when they repeat on a page. My daughter was seeing the repeats at least 25% of the time and her teacher noticed no markers of dyslexia. She just needs more time to develop the automaticity part of reading.

And my friend from Quebec turned out fine if it's any consolation. She graduated from McGill and earns more than any other person in our friend group. I think she's pretty brilliant so I take her words to heart when she says that my kid will be ok.

 

[mjmichaels]

@oldaussie Can you recommend any resources for learning to read in German? Thanks for your comment, I'm trying to figure out how to support reading for our minority languages (German and Spanish) though I'm hoping school with do the heavy lifting with English.

 

[ohme90]

@mjmichaels I'm not the person you asked, but similar situation (English native mom, German native dad, both speak Spanish additionally, living in Germany).

We do a small amount of English phonics at home (100 Easy Lessons book, Khan Academy Kids app) to reinforce the American spellings and pronunciations that our kids won't have at school, where the British influence is much stronger in their English (EFL) classes.

For German reading, I can tell you what they're doing in Berlin public schools:

• No serious reading/writing instruction till grade one (age 6-ish). No literacy in pre-K other than writing and recognizing one's own name.
• Starting in first grade: Phonics. (Thankfully!) More focused on syllables than individual letters and blends, compared to what I see in English materials.
• The main class books in the first grade Berlin are the Zebra series by Klett. There are several levels.
• First graders get a "Leseblatt" weekly for home phonics practice with their family. This link has some examples. The idea is that the parents point to syllables at random at the beginning to prevent the kids from memorizing the order or from memorizing whole words. Nonsense words come later, again to avoid memorizing/guessing. Real words and short sentences follow after a few weeks of practicing this.
• The only common mobile/tablet app for this is called Anton. It looks clunky compared to most of what's out there for the English language market, but the German market is smaller and draws a lot less investment than English-language ed tech.

 

[mjmichaels]

@ohme90 Wow that's amazing info thank you so much! Interesting that the Zebra series reminds me a lot of what I chose for Spanish (Coquito series), although syllables aren't the only focus it does use them a lot. My daughter is in preschool so I'm in the research stage, reading is a ways off. But it's so expensive getting resources sent to Australia, I like to plan it out a bit.

 

[lokeangirl]

@oldaussie I forgot about this, but… need to keep the numbers thing in mind for the future. I (Dutch) learned English when my family moved overseas for a bit at age 7. From that time onward I sometimes struggle with numbers - mostly when I speak both a lot. Nowadays I sometimes “write” them in the air to help myself

My husband is American, I lived in the US for 3 years. Now in NL, but back to the US in the near future. Daughters are 2,5yo and 7mo.

 

[lionheartiv]

@oldaussie Piggybacking off this, OP if your daughter is dyslexic in the French school system in Quebec you will absolutely need to advocate for her and the school will not without a note from her doctor. Just a heads up.

 

[lindalu47]

@tomorrow From my own experience, I was raised bilingually and took longer to learn to read. Once I could I suddenly surpassed my peers in reading ability and taught myself how to read my other language.
My son is the same. Here they start learning to read age 6, it wasn't until the summer holidays at age 7 that it clicked. Now getting him to not read can be a struggle.and he's teaching himself to read his second language too.

At school they were considering looking into dyslexia. Now I'm glad we didn't rush it. He just needed time.

I don't know if our experience helps, but I wish you all the best!

 

[smallf]

@tomorrow While I don’t have scientific data, i only have anecdotal. I was born in Montreal and only spoke Vietnamese or Cantonese at home. Didn’t even go to daycare as my mom was a seamstresses who worked from home. So my first French exposure was pre-K. My mom recalls that first year being super tough for me because I only knew how to ask for the washroom and respond to my name. Eventually I integrated and learned French. My reading skills were definitely not as strong as my peers but my parents didn’t know how to read or write in French so I think your daughter is better set up than I was. I also eventually learned English and I’m now finishing my Master of Science in Nursing. Im also fluent in English, French, Vietnamese. My level of Cantonese is very low due to no exposure/practice for many years.

My daughter is only 9 months old but she’s exposed to 4 languages (English, French, Cantonese and Vietnamese). I asked our doctor if I should be expecting her to speak at a later age than her peers due to so many language exposure. He said yes and encouraged us to keep exposing her to all 4 languages. To be fair, I asked because I know I’ll have bad anxiety if I don’t ask and she starts talking later. We work on reading to her in French and English and have the grandparents speak to her in their native language.