Learning another language?

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Hi

my 5 year old has started putting 2-3 sentences together and is talking a lot more, although he is developmentally behind his peers. I was wondering if now was a right time to
Introduce french to him?

I believe kids are bilingual from an early age and it's easier for them to pick up a new language. I was putting it off and waiting for him to speak english in paragraphs, before teaching a new language. I don't want to confuse him.

Any advice.

thanks

Without knowing my son had AS, but believing strongly in a second language, we enrolled him in a full-immersion Spanish preschool, and then in a two-way-immersion English/Spanish elementary school.

I had no idea there would be secondary benefits, but later on, I realized that he learned to read emotions because all his teachers were so much more animated and expressive nonverbally to help the children catch on to the language they didn't know. It also helped my son stand out less, as most of the other kids struggled to understand the teacher, too.

However, after eight full years of Spanish immersion, my son speaks about seven words of Spanish. I assume it's all inside that big brain of his, waiting to get out, but he's essentially nonverbal in Spanish (he does have good receptive language, though.)

Is French spoken in your home? I found that lots of exposure to a second language helped me to pick it up easier. If not, having recordings of stories being read in French would help.

Oddly, it isn't that hard to keep multiple languages straight.

It really depends on the child. My daughter has classic autism and is 6, started to speak English (we lived in the US but my husband is French) in short sentences, mainly echo and script, at age 4. She is now 6 and they say she has the communication level of a 2 year old in English. We now live in France and she is picking up things but it has been very difficult and stressful for her even causing severe regression at one point, she is recovering from that now. Then again she was suddenly immersed in it so its a bit different than just casually teaching another language.
My son will be 9 tomorrow, he has Aspgergers. He was sent to a French immersion school in the US for ages 4 and 5. He was home schooled with me for ages 6 and 7. We now live in France and he picked it back up very easily and can even help me to translate.
I have heard that it is good to start them as early as possible especially if you live in a multi lingual house or plan to move to the other country but if you child is struggling already just to speak I would not push the issue too much. Just be happy that they speak in any language.
I will say though if you want to try the best program for kids is called Muzzy. Dont spend the money on it until you check your local library, we found it there to help my son to recover some of what he lost before we moved.

Well, we speak English at home but live in Japan. My kid doesn't really communicate much yet in either language but he can count to 100 in both!

My son heard multiple languages spoken as a young child... his first words were a sentence that incorporated vocabulary from two different languages... so yes, I know that it's possible for aspie kids to pick up languages early. (My son was eight months and two weeks when he first spoke, though after that he invented his own highly colourful language instead for a while...) My son now has some Mandarin Chinese and Russian, a reasonable amount of French (understands most conversations, though is shy to talk) and German, as well as English. He's never had to try.

If you live in the UK drop me a line... it's always popular I can put you in touch with a teacher. But the big thing is to talk within the home in more than one language. If your child doesn't hear the language regularly in a natural context he or she simply won't learn it.

Well, this study found that a bunch of language-impaired English kids in French immersion, after 2 years, could speak and write English as well as similarly-affected kids educated in English - plus they knew some French, too, though much less than nondisabled English kids in French immersion.

My dad wouldn't let my grandmother speak German (her native language) to me as a child because he thought I'd get confused. I've never forgiven him for it.