When my daughter came into the world, my husband and I faced a delightful challenge: how to nurture her bilingual upbringing. We had made a pact from the beginning – he would speak to her in German, and I, in French. It was our way of preserving our respective mother tongues and passing them on to the next generation.

As our daughter grew and became more engaged in our conversations, we encountered a common hurdle in multilingual (and monolingual) households. She would often experience moments of frustration, wanting to express herself but not yet possessing the verbal skills to do so. It was during these heartwarming but sometimes perplexing moments that I decided to introduce a unique addition to our linguistic mix – baby sign language.

Not surprisingly, some members of our extended family expressed concerns about the potential confusion this might bring to our daughter's language development journey. But I was determined to give it a try, believing that it could be the bridge she needed to navigate our multilingual household more smoothly.

To our delight, baby sign language turned out to be not just a bridge but a beacon of understanding in our home. The concept was simple: my husband and I would use the same signs to ask our daughter if she wanted water, for instance, but we would accompany those signs with our respective languages. The result was astonishing – it seemed as though our daughter had found a way to connect both languages effortlessly.

In this forum section, we'd love to hear from fellow multilingual families. What strategies or tips have you found helpful in creating a bridge between the languages spoken at home? Please share your experiences, insights, and questions, as together, we explore the wonderful world of multilingual parenting.