2 year old daughter only speaking English... advice?
Hey all,
We started doing one parent one language when my daughter was around 8 months. Here are some bullet points of information for context, and what we are struggling with:
- I'm Pakistani-Canadian and I speak to her in Urdu. Hubby is Canadian and speaks to her in English.
- I have been speaking to her in Urdu since she was 8 months, and she seemingly understands everything I'm saying.
- Hubby is trying to learn Urdu to increase the amount of Urdu spoken at home, but it's slow going. Nobody else speaks to her in Urdu - we see my parents once or twice a month and that's the most exposure she gets.
- Daughter started daycare two months ago, where she is now fully immersed in English.
- Ever since daycare started, she stopped trying to speak Urdu and now only speaks in English. Words she used to say in Urdu now are replaced with English words. For example, she used to always say "hawa" (for wind), but now she just says wind lol
- I read books to her in Urdu and we watch Sesame Street in Urdu, which do help - so I think it's an immersion thing, but there are such few resources I can find in Urdu....
- When we do activities (like weekend soccer etc.), she gets corrected by other individuals if she does use Urdu words. For example, the coach asks - "What color is this ball?" - she will say the color in Urdu and he goes "Good try ! But its xyz"
- At this point, she speaks to me in English and I've been responding in Urdu, encouraging her to speak in Urdu as well but she doesn't seem interested.
So basically, how do I help her? I would love for her to be able to speak Urdu (my parents don't speak English, and it's important for me that she be able to communicate with them) but it feels like we're essentially failing. We don't currently have the opportunity to visit Pakistan any time soon so full immersion is not a possibility. My husband suggested I pretend to not understand her when she speaks in English, but at this point, she's only speaking English - do I pretend to not understand her at all?
Any advice/suggestions on how to tackle this/ what I should do, are so desperately wanted.
Thank you in advance!