Reflections on a Parent-Teacher Meeting: Supporting My Child’s Development

Today, I had an individual meeting with my son’s kindergarten teacher, which provided both parties with a valuable opportunity to exchange information about the recent developments concerning the children. I deeply appreciate these kinds of settings. In daily life, especially for parents who both work full-time, it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle of trivial chores and neglect having in-depth conversations with the teacher, who is the closest observer of my child’s growth.

My son stays at kindergarten from 9:00 AM to 6:30 PM, spending more than nine hours there each day—far longer than the time he spends awake at home. Instead of focusing on compliments about my son’s strengths and achievements, we addressed my confusion and concerns about our daily interactions. Our discussion revolved around three main issues: bilingual education, speech clarity, and behavioral pace.

Bilingual Education

Initially, I hadn’t intended to bring up the topic of bilingual education. I assumed the teachers at this kindergarten, being quite traditional in their understanding of Japanese culture, might not have the expertise to address my concerns about raising a multilingual child. However, the teacher asked about my parents’ extended stay, which led me to express my concerns about my son’s bilingual journey. For example, although I mostly speak to him in Chinese, he consistently responds in Japanese.

As I anticipated, the teacher didn’t have practical suggestions to offer regarding this issue. However, she did share a similar case involving another family at the kindergarten. In that family, the wife is American, and the husband is Japanese. Unlike us, the American mother has very little knowledge of Japanese, which encourages their children to understand the necessity of learning English. Without English, they wouldn’t be able to communicate effectively with their mother.

I had previously spoken with this mother about bilingual education, and she seemed confident about her children’s bilingual development. However, the teacher revealed that their children appeared to lag behind their monolingual peers in certain areas of development. In contrast, my son’s hesitance to speak Chinese seems to have resulted in the solid development of a dominant language (Japanese), enabling him to process complex matters without confusion between languages.

It’s still too early to determine whether having a dominant language is beneficial or detrimental for future language acquisition. I remain committed to supporting my son’s linguistic development and believe that, as he grows up, he will appreciate my continued efforts.

Speech Clarity

Another issue I raised was his difficulty with enunciation. I noticed this problem when he was younger, but I assumed it was due to immature development of his tongue or mouth muscles and that it would resolve naturally over time. However, this hasn’t improved. The teacher mentioned that she, too, had noticed his speech clarity issues occasionally but didn’t raise it earlier because it hasn’t significantly impacted his ability to communicate. She suggested reaching out to institutions specializing in developmental issues, which are supported by the city government, for professional advice. I plan to take action to help improve my son’s speech clarity.

Behavioral Pace

The third issue we discussed deserves more time to organize my thoughts thoroughly. It relates to how my son interacts with his surroundings and processes tasks, which I will elaborate on in another entry.


Overall, this meeting was incredibly insightful and reminded me of the importance of creating opportunities for open communication with teachers. These discussions shed light on my son’s developmental journey and gave me ideas for addressing specific concerns.