Bilingual children and communication

Also called Bilingualism, Multilingual children, EAL and speech and language, Dual language learners

Two languages never cause a language disorder. Dropping the home language does not help, and AAC can and should carry both.

What it is

A bilingual child is one growing up with two or more languages, whether from birth or from starting nursery in a language other than the one spoken at home. Roughly a fifth of primary pupils in England have English as an additional language, so this isn't unusual, and the guidance is settled.

Bilingualism does not cause language delay or disorder. A bilingual child with a language disorder has it in both languages, and would have had it with one. The advice to "just speak English at home" is still given, and it's wrong: it takes away the language the parents speak best, which is the language the child learns most from.

Who it can help

Families raising children in more than one language, and the nursery and school staff who assess them. It matters most when a bilingual child seems to be behind, because the two easy mistakes point in opposite directions: assuming a real difficulty is "just the bilingualism", and assuming ordinary second-language learning is a disorder. Both happen.

It also matters for AAC users in bilingual families. A device that only speaks English cuts a child off from grandparents and from half their world. Symbol sets like ARASAAC are multilingual, and a board can carry two languages on it.

How it works

A child learning two languages at once develops each along the normal path, with the vocabulary split between them. So a two-year-old might have thirty words in Punjabi and twenty in English: fifty words, which is typical. Counting only the English gives a false picture, and a proper assessment counts both, ideally with an interpreter or a bilingual therapist.

A child who starts English at nursery goes through a predictable sequence: a period of using the home language, often a silent period lasting weeks or months while they listen, then formulaic phrases ("my turn", "I don't know"), then productive English. A silent period is not selective mutism, though the two can be confused.

Mixing languages in a sentence is normal and skilful, not confusion. A child who has a real difficulty shows it in both languages: late milestones in the home language too, difficulty with understanding, or the pattern their bilingual siblings didn't have.

Getting started

Keep the home language. Speak the language you're most comfortable in, richly, with stories and songs. That is the best thing you can do for the child's English as well.

If you're worried, get the home language assessed too. Ask the speech and language therapy service for an interpreter or a bilingual therapist, and bring a word list in both languages. Parents' reports of the home language are the essential evidence, and a good service asks for them.

For an AAC user, ask for both languages on the device. Many systems support two vocabularies or a language switch; where the built-in voices don't cover the home language, a printed board in that language still does the job at Nana's.

Where to get help

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists publishes the professional position on bilingualism, which is that home languages should be maintained. Speech and Language UK has parent guidance on raising a bilingual child. For symbols in many languages, ARASAAC and Global Symbols are free.