My children are half Japanese and were born and raised here in Japan. I’ve worked really hard to make sure they speak both English and Japanese and they are very good at both languages. They occasionally get mixed up or use a combination of both languages while talking but over all I’ve honestly never had any concerns or noticed any problems.
When my oldest was 5 I was absolutely shocked when his teacher spoke with me of concerns about his developmental progress. She mentioned him not understanding words or instructions. We ended up taking him to a specialist who recommended he be put in a special education class aside from his regular class a few hours a day. He has been in this class for a few years now.
Just this morning, I was called in for a meeting for my youngest son. He goes to a completely different school with different teachers and they told me the exact same thing about him too. Now I have a meeting with a different specialist scheduled
We live pretty deep in the country side and there are no other bilingual kids at any of the schools my children go to. If my children are developmentally delayed of course I would want to get them the best help I can but I can’t stop thinking that this is just a problem of teachers not being use to bilingual children. I’ve had teachers make comments to me like “I’ve never had an American student before” which leads me to believe the teachers see my children as non native Japanese speakers
I’ve been really stressed out about this and was wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences with Japanese teachers suggesting things like this to their bilingual children. Sorry for the long post! Any help or suggestions are kindly appreciated!
by Pleasant_Badger_7188