COMMON MYTHS YOU WILL HEAR ABOUT BILINGUAL AND MULTILINGUAL CHILDREN

1. Children growing up in a home with more than one language will inevitably get confused. NO

2. Children growing up in culturally/ linguistically diverse households are likely to be language delayed. NO

3. The more languages a child learns the less sophisticated his/her verbal expression becomes. NO

4. Bilingual/ Multilingual children always end up "mixing" languages and cannot separate the different language systems. NO

5. Children growing up in a culturally/linguistically diverse home should stop speaking their native (often first) language once they start American (mainstream) schooling. PLEASE- NO.

6. Bilingual/ Multilingual children grow up to be at a disadvantage and their overall cognitive skills are weaker as compared to those of the monolingual children. ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Stay tuned for my next post- together we will dispel these myths with both evidence and my clinical experience.