As parents, grandparents and other important members of the child’s social circle, we ‘plant the seeds’ and try to provide all the necessary ‘nutrients’ for the growth of the child’s language. We then expect her to follow a series of well-described stages of language development – and look for their early signs eagerly.  But we need to exercise caution in expecting too much too soon. Parents – and others – will have to rediscover each developmental stage because each child follows her own developmental path and timetable dependent on a multitude of factors.

So we, on both sides, Russian and French, engage in conversations and storytelling, make sure there is a supply of books and a commitment to read them together, plan trips and play dates. When we see our granddaughter in person we try to use our language for different purposes – this happens naturally when we do things together: play games, tell stories, prepare food, do chores and simple tasks around the house, read books, enjoy walks together and more. When we skype, we not only chat with her, we also have conversations with her parents so that she is exposed to more complex fluent speech in both languages.

We still worry – comparing our child to the neighbor’s children, to our nieces and nephews, to multiple other children described in baby blogs and books. But this state of mild anxiety keeps us alert and mindful of the linguistic needs of our granddaughter.