Preparing your home for when your baby arrives

For every new parent, expecting a child—especially their first—is a lot. Where the baby will sleep, how to arrange for feeding, changing, and bathing, and how to set up your work schedule so that you or another caregiver can spend time with the child are just a few of the many unknowns and preparations that need to be made. If you are fortunate enough to speak multiple languages, you might want your child to be able to speak them. Although this isn't always the case, many people in the English-speaking world know very little about any other language. Nearly 60% of EU citizens between the ages of 25 and 64 are "good" or "proficient" in at least one language other than their first.Many youngsters can anticipate having multiple first languages as they are born into households where many languages are spoken on a regular basis. It's possible that your parents speak various first languages or that you were raised speaking multiple first languages. Neither parent's first language may be the one spoken by the majority of people outside the family.

You can do a lot to set the stage for your child to learn the languages you want them to know before they are born. Parents might talk about the language skills they hope their child will acquire. Which language or languages should your child learn as their first language from the beginning? Generally speaking, the original language or languages are more developed than subsequent languages. If more than three or four languages are involved, you might have to prioritize due to practical constraints.Making sure the child receives adequate, consistent exposure to and contact with each language they are learning is crucial. Parents frequently desire the ability to communicate with their infant in the language or languages in which they were raised. Other languages may be spoken outside the home, but these can wait until your child's environment broadens to include daycare or early childhood education, or sandpit interactions with other kids.