Benefits of Bilingualism for Children

Using more than one language can help children maintain ties with family, culture, and community. American Academy of Pediatrics guidance and ZERO TO THREE describe these connections as an important part of multilingual development.

This page focuses on that supported benefit and offers optional, family-led ideas for making space for the languages that matter in your household.

1. Daily Life as a Classroom

Everyday routines can be a place to hear and use the languages that matter to your household, if that feels comfortable for everyone involved.

• Name familiar items: During a meal, walk, or tidy-up, a family member can use words they naturally use for familiar objects.
• Make a household word list: Invite the child to choose a few objects, draw them, and add words used by relatives or caregivers.

There is no need to turn the routine into a lesson; the activity can stay brief and optional.

2. Play and Learn with Games

Games can offer a relaxed way for family members to share words, stories, and preferences in more than one language.

• Picture matching: Make pairs of picture cards and use words that family members choose to say while taking turns.
• Clue game: Hide a familiar object and let participants give simple clues in whichever household language they wish to use.

Adapt the rules, language choice, and level of participation to the child and family.

3. Immerse Them in Stories and Movies

Stories, films, and audio can be shared in a language connected to a child’s family, culture, or community.

• Choose together: Let the child select a book, story, clip, or recording to share with a caregiver.
• Talk about a moment: Pause afterwards to ask what the child noticed, liked, or wondered about. Family members can respond in the language that feels natural to them.

Keep the experience focused on enjoying and sharing the material together.

4. Make Screen Time Work for Learning

If screens are part of family life, they can also be used to share music, stories, or video calls in languages used by relatives and caregivers.

• Watch together: A caregiver can join the child for a short programme or song and talk about it afterwards.
• Choose familiar material: Revisit a story, song, or family recording the child already enjoys.

Families can decide what media and amount of screen use fit their own routines.

5. Connect Through Culture

Choose simple opportunities to share the language or languages that are meaningful in your family. The aim can be connection rather than a test of vocabulary or progress.

• Share a family story: Invite a relative or caregiver to tell a short story in the language they are most comfortable using. A child can listen, ask about a word, or draw a favourite part.
• Explore a familiar tradition: Make a family recipe, listen to a song, or look through photos together. Use any words that feel natural to the people taking part.
• Follow the child’s lead: Let the child choose whether to listen, repeat a word, ask a question, or simply join the activity.

You can also browse the Child Development category.

6. Encourage Speaking Without Pressure

Children can be invited to take part in family-language activities without being required to speak on demand.

• Offer choices: A child might listen, point, draw, use one word, or answer in another language.
• Try pretend play: Family members can act out a shop, café, journey, or celebration using any words that feel comfortable.

Keep the invitation open and allow the child to decide how much they want to join in.

7. Make Space for Regular Use

Some families may choose regular moments for using a language that is important in their home or extended family.

• Choose a small routine: Pick a greeting, song, family story, or shared meal conversation to revisit when it suits the household.
• Keep it flexible: Change the plan, pause it, or use a different language when family needs change.

The purpose can simply be to make room for connection in everyday family life.

8. Foster Social Interaction in the Target Language

Connection with relatives, neighbours, and community members can create occasions for a child to hear languages used by people important to the family.

• Include relatives: Invite a family member to share a greeting, story, recipe, or photo memory.
• Attend community events: If appropriate for your family, choose a local cultural or language-related gathering to attend together.
• Plan online contact carefully: When children communicate online, use family-appropriate supervision and privacy arrangements.

9. Engage in Creative Arts and Crafts

Creative activities can provide another way to share family memories, traditions, and languages without making the activity a test.

• Make a memory page: Draw or collage a family meal, place, celebration, or story, then add words that participants choose.
• Create signs or labels: Make simple labels for a drawing, toy town, or pretend shop using words familiar to the household.
• Put on a short scene: Invite participants to act out a family story or imagined situation in any language they choose.

10. Introduce Science and Nature Activities

Outdoor time and simple hands-on activities can be adapted to include words used in a child’s family or community.

• Notice what is around you: On a walk, participants can point out plants, weather, animals, colours, or sounds using words they know.
• Describe a process: During a simple, age-appropriate activity at home, family members can narrate what they are doing in the language they choose.

Use only activities and materials that are appropriate for the child and setting.

11. Create a Home Library in the Target Language

A home collection can include books, recordings, and stories that reflect the languages, people, and places important to a family.

• Gather meaningful material: Choose books or recordings that family members want to share, including stories passed along by relatives.
• Read or listen together: Let the child choose whether to look at pictures, listen, ask questions, or retell part of the story.
• Make a family book: Create pages about favourite people, foods, places, or memories using words contributors want to include.

12. Incorporate Technology for All Ages

Technology can be one optional way to share messages, recordings, photos, or conversations with people who use another language.

• Save family recordings: Ask relatives whether they would like to record a greeting, song, or short story for the child.
• Share photos and messages: Look through family photos together and invite relatives to add words or captions they choose.
• Set household boundaries: Decide which tools, contacts, and privacy settings are appropriate before a child uses a device.

13. Celebrate Progress and Milestones

Families may wish to notice moments when a child participates in ways that matter to them, such as listening to a relative’s story or choosing a family song.

• Make a memory collection: Save drawings, recordings, or photos from shared family-language activities.
• Mark a shared occasion: Plan a meal, story night, or visit around a family tradition or community event.
• Ask what the child enjoyed: Let the child decide what, if anything, they would like to repeat or share.