Being ‘bilingual’ means you can speak 2 languages. Lots of families in Australia speak more than 1 language. Speaking multiple languages has many benefits for children, and it’s something they pick up very well.
The benefits of raising bilingual children
If you come from a non-English-speaking background, you may think it's better to speak to your children in English at home, but that's not true. Teaching your children your first language can benefit their development and helps them understand your culture.
Speaking multiple languages from an early age can help children to learn. It will also help them to speak English better. Studies show that bilingual children:
- find it easier to learn to read
- find it easier to learn another language
- settle into school easier
- feel better about themselves (they have higher self-esteem, sense of identity and belonging)
- achieve better academic results
- will have more career opportunities when they’re older
Raising bilingual children will improve communication in your family and help both you and your children to be part of your culture.
Which language should I use with my child?
Children need to be exposed to both your first language and to English. It's important that you talk to your child in the language that feels most comfortable for both of you. This might mean that sometimes one member of the family will use one language, and another family member will use another language.
At first, bilingual children might get confused and mix up the languages. Don’t worry — children quickly learn how to switch from one language to the other.
When to start
You are your child’s first teacher. It's best to start speaking to your child in more than 1 language as early as possible – that is, from birth. Some families decide it's better to introduce the second language only after the child speaks the first language well, at about ages 3 or 4. However, there is no evidence that this helps the child to speak either language better.
Babies first learn words before they start to talk. Hold your baby close from birth, talk to them and make eye contact to help them understand how conversations work. Once your baby is older, you can start pointing to objects and naming them. Young children can often learn 1 or 2 new words a day.
Children start to talk in sentences once they know about 100 words, usually at around age 2. Bilingual children might start talking a little later than children from families where just one language is spoken, but that is normal.
Tips for raising bilingual children
Raising bilingual children can sometimes mean a lot of work, and it's a long-term commitment. These tips might help:
- Encourage your child and make it fun. Play games in your first language, sing songs or record stories. Borrow CDs, DVDs, picture books and magazines in your first language.
- Connect with other families who speak your language and organise play dates for your child.
- Look for schools, child care centres or bilingual programs that will help your child practise your first language.
- Find activities that will boost your child’s interest in your culture.
- If you don’t speak English well, expose your child to as much English as possible outside the home. Visit playgroups, go to child care, meet with English-speaking friends.
- Children need to understand why they should speak both languages. Put them in situations where they have to speak the second language to communicate with other people.
- Even if your child doesn’t seem interested, keep speaking to them in your first language.
Bilingualism at home - video
Video provided by Raising Children Network.
Where to get help
Call Pregnancy, Birth and Baby on 1800 882 436 for support and advice. You can use the Translating and Interpreting Service to call.
The Multilingual Phone Service offers information in your language about Centrelink payments and services. You can call them on 131 202.
The Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) on 131 450 has bilingual information about Medicare and Child Support services.
Raising multilingual or bilingual children is good not only for your child or children, but also for your family and your community.
Children: benefits of multilingualism and bilingualism
For your child, speaking and using more than one language regularly might be linked to:
- better academic results
- more diverse and interesting career opportunities later in life.
Also, if your child grows up speaking more than one language, they might have a better sense of self-worth, identity and belonging. This comes from:
- feeling good about their heritage
- feeling confident about communicating and connecting with extended family members and people who speak their heritage language
- learning and hearing stories directly from family members
- being able to enjoy music, movies, literature and so on in more than one language.
Families: benefits of multilingualism and bilingualism
For your family, multilingualism and developing your language in your child:
- improves communication among your family members
- enhances emotional bonds
- makes it easier for you and your child to be part of your culture
- boosts your family’s sense of cultural identity and belonging.
Communities: benefits of multilingualism and bilingualism
For your wider community, when children speak more than one language, it means that:
- everyone in the community gets a better appreciation of different languages and cultures
- children can more easily travel and work in different countries and cultures when they grow up
- children understand and appreciate different cultures
- children have increased empathy for other ways of understanding the world.
Things to think about when you’re raising multilingual and bilingual children
Raising multilingual or bilingual children is a long-term commitment. To make multilingualism work for your child and family, there are things you can do each day and might need to think about over the long term. These things include:
- sticking with your heritage language, even when there’s pressure to choose English
- reminding yourself that using your heritage language helps to strengthen family bonds
- using your heritage language to play games, read books, cook food and do other fun things that make it positive for your child
- helping your child understand the benefits of multilingualism and bilingualism
- making sure your child gets plenty of chances to hear and use their heritage language
- talking to your child’s teachers and getting their support for your efforts
- getting support for yourself – for example, by talking to friends and family who are raising multilingual or bilingual children and finding resources in your community, like bilingual playgroups.
Multilingualism and bilingualism: frequently asked questions
Can children understand the differences between languages?
Children can understand the differences between languages from very early on. They can learn 2 or more languages at the same time without getting confused. For example, they realise very quickly that they need to speak German to Grandma and English to the teacher.
How does multilingualism and bilingualism affect the way children learn English?
Children who grow up in a family where parents have only limited English do better at learning English in school if they keep speaking their heritage languages at home. That’s because a solid base in their first language makes it easier for them to learn a second one.
How does multilingualism and bilingualism affect literacy skills?
Multilingual and bilingual children who are exposed to more than one written language – for example, Spanish and English – or even different writing systems – for example, Chinese and English – can read and write English at high levels. Learning more than one language helps children understand language structures, and they’re more likely to become literate in all the languages they use.
How does multilingualism and bilingualism affect academic learning?
Being multilingual or bilingual often helps children learn at school because it helps them with problem-solving, multitasking, creativity and flexible thinking. These children can also have good focus.
How does multilingualism and bilingualism affect speech development?
All children develop speech at different rates. Learning more than one language at the same time won’t affect how early or quickly your child learns to speak. Children exposed to more than one language from birth become native speakers of all their languages.
Do parents need to worry if multilingual or bilingual children mix their languages?
Multilingual or bilingual children sometimes start a sentence with one language and finish with another language. This is natural part of bilingual development. Children stop doing this with age and experience.
Education | News releases | Social science
July 17, 2017
UW student Jinnie Yi works with a toddler at one of the participating infant education centers in Madrid.I-LABS
For years, scientists and parents alike have touted the benefits of introducing babies to two languages: Bilingual experience has been shown to improve cognitive abilities, especially problem-solving.
And for infants raised in households where two languages are spoken, that bilingual learning happens almost effortlessly. But how can babies in monolingual households develop such skills?
“As researchers studying early language development, we often hear from parents who are eager to provide their child with an opportunity to learn another language, but can’t afford a nanny from a foreign country and don’t speak a foreign language themselves,” said Naja Ferjan Ramirez, a research scientist at the University of Washington Institute of Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS).
A new study by I-LABS researchers, published July 17 in Mind, Brain, and Education, is among the first to investigate how babies can learn a second language outside of the home. The researchers sought to answer a fundamental question: Can babies be taught a second language if they don’t get foreign language exposure at home, and if so, what kind of foreign language exposure, and how much, is needed to spark that learning?
The researchers took their query all the way to Europe, developing a play-based, intensive, English-language method and curriculum and implementing it in four public infant-education centers in Madrid, Spain. Sixteen UW undergraduates and recent graduates served as tutors for the study, undergoing two weeks of training at I-LABS to learn the teaching method and curriculum before traveling to Spain. The country’s extensive public education system enabled the researchers to enroll 280 infants and children from families of varying income levels.
Based on years of I-LABS research on infant brain and language development, the method emphasizes social interaction, play, and high quality and quantity of language from the teachers. The approach uses “infant-directed speech” — often called “parentese” — the speech style parents use to talk to their babies, which has simpler grammar, higher and exaggerated pitch, and drawn-out vowels.
“Our research shows that parentese helps babies learn language,” Ferjan Ramirez said.
Babies aged 7 to 33.5 months were given one hour of English sessions a day for 18 weeks, while a control group received the Madrid schools’ standard bilingual program. Both groups of children were tested in Spanish and English at the start and end of the 18 weeks. The children also wore special vests outfitted with lightweight recorders that recorded their English learning. The recordings were analyzed to determine how many English words and phrases each child spoke.
An infant takes a look at a picture during a session with UW student Anna Kunz.I-LABS
The children who received the UW method showed rapid increases in English comprehension and production, and significantly outperformed the control group peers at all ages on all tests of English. By the end of the 18-week program, the children in the UW program produced an average of 74 English words or phrases per child, per hour; children in the control group produced 13 English words or phrases per child, per hour.
Ferjan Ramirez said the findings show that even babies from monolingual homes can develop bilingual abilities at this early age.
“With the right science-based approach that combines the features known to grow children’s language, it is possible to give very young children the opportunity to start learning a second language, with only one hour of play per day in an early education setting,” she said. “This has big implications for how we think about foreign-language learning.”
Follow-up testing 18 weeks later showed the children had retained what they learned. The English gains were similar between children attending the two schools serving predominantly low-income neighborhoods and the two serving mid-income areas, suggesting that wealth was not a significant factor in the infants’ ability to learn a foreign language. Children’s native language (Spanish) continued to grow as they were learning English, and was not negatively affected by introducing a second language.
“Science indicates that babies’ brains are the best learning machines ever created, and that infants’ learning is time-sensitive. Their brains will never be better at learning a second language than they are between 0 and 3 years of age,” said co-author Patricia Kuhl, co-director of I-LABS and a UW professor of speech and hearing sciences.
The results, Kuhl said, have the potential to transform how early language instruction is approached in the United States and worldwide:
“Parents in Madrid, in the United States and around the world are eager to provide their children with an opportunity to learn a foreign language early. The U.S. census shows that 27 percent of America’s children under the age of 6 are now learning a language other than English at home. While these children are fully capable of learning both their parents’ language and English, they often do not have adequate exposure to English prior to kindergarten entry and as a result, often lag behind their peers once they enter school,” she said.
“I-LABS’ new work shows we can create an early bilingual learning environment for dual-language learners in an educational setting, and in one hour per day, infants can ignite the learning of a second language earlier and much easier than we previously thought. This is doable for everybody,” Kuhl said.
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For more information, contact Ferjan Ramirez at or 206-747-7850 and Kuhl at or 206-685-1921.
The study was supported by the Madrid Regional Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, and the UW I-LABS Ready Mind Project.
The UW method emphasized playful social interaction and active child participation. Here, UW student Martin Horst plays with the children.I-LABS
Tag(s): Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences • I-LABS • Naja Ferjan Ramirez • Patricia Kuhl