Bilingual Language Development: How Children Learn Two Languages

Bilingual language development is the process through which children learn to understand and use two languages, either from birth or over time.

For many parents, this journey can feel uncertain. You may wonder whether your child will get confused, fall behind, or mix languages.

The good news is that children are naturally equipped to learn more than one language, and with the right support, they can thrive.

Why Bilingual Language Development Matters

Bilingualism offers a plethora of cognitive, academic, and societal advantages. It fosters cognitive flexibility, enhances problem-solving skills, and even contributes to better career opportunities. However, navigating the path to bilingual proficiency can be a complex endeavor, filled with questions and uncertainties.

How Bilingual Language Development Works

Simultaneous vs sequential bilingualism

There are two methods through which children learn multiple languages.

Sequential bilingualism occurs when a child is first taught one language, and upon mastering it, begins to learn another.

In contrast, simultaneous bilingualism occurs when the child learns both languages at the same time.

Simultaneous bilingualism occurs within the first year of life, whereas the sequential acquisition of a second language can occur at any age.

Whereas a child who is a sequential language learner would learn one language until the age of 3 or older before being exposed to a second language. Many times, sequential learners are exposed to a second language once beginning school.

Where a child who is a simultaneous language learner would be spoken to in both home languages with, as much as possible, even frequency so that they are receiving the same amount of exposure in each language. As early as 4 months old, a child is capable of discriminating between their two languages.

We’ve raised both our children as bilingual from birth and noticed that babies understand the different sounds we are making to communicate with them before they know the words. So for example if my husband was about to pick up my son he would say “su” meaning up. My son would tense his little neck muscles knowing that after this sound from his dad he would be picked up. However, he would do the same before I picked him up when I said “up”.

These are important points to notice because there will be times when they are older when you feel you are not being understood and can lose heart in the process. However, if you pay atttention often your child understands what you mean but they just aren’t yet verbalising it.

How brains process two languages

Bilingual children’s brains process two languages by creating dense, intertwined networks that treat languages as co-existing things rather than separate compartments.

The brain manages this by constantly activating and inhibiting languages depending on which one is being used. This actually enhances cognitive functions like focus and multitasking. Early exposure is best for developing native-like proficiency in both languages. But children can still acquire a good level of fluency as later learners.

Bilingual brains typically store both languages in the same brain region and both are usually active, unlike adult/later learners who may use separate areas for each language. To simplify; in practise, a bilingual will see an object as having multiple active labels such as ‘table’ or ‘tavolo’ whereas a monolingual will know an object as a ‘table’ and then have to consciously translate it to the second language. This is because bilinguals have two languages active/switched on in their minds at the same time.

Stages of Bilingual Language Development

I wasn’t sure about adding this section as being a parent I know any kind of ‘milestone’ type information makes us panic that our child is not making the progress they should be. It’s also really important to remember that just as your child will learn to walk, eat, sleep through the night and many other things at different stages to their peers this is the same with language learning. So do not worry if you child does not fit the guidelines below. This are rough ideas of when things might happen. Every child is different. My daughter was still eating puree’ at 7 months but she now eats everything. My friend’s child was the only one not walking at 12 months and now she’s at secondary school running around playing football. They are all individuals.

Babies: 0–12 months

Just like monolinguals at this stage, babies are cooing, gurgling and listening to the world around them. You may notice towards 1 year that they start to know who to look at if you call a specfic name, such as a sibling, pet or even ‘Papa’. Look for clues in their body language but don’t worry too much, ways to help enjoyment of both languages at this stage is singing songs and showing picture books.

My husband would play a little game where my son would be laid back in this bouncer and he would hold his hands and bring him towards him saying “su, su su” meaning “up, up, up” and then he would lower him back down saying “giu, giu, giu” meaning “down, down, down”. Matching an action with a sound is helpful but will happen naturally anyway. The main thing is for the baby to be exposed to both languages and have connection with the person speaking them.

Toddler: 1–3 years

Things you might notice at this stage is that your child has a silent period. Often this is where they are actively listening to their environemnt, processing and understanding who interacts with each other in which ways and with which sounds. Don’t be put off but enourage children and keep talking. You can see if your child understands through simple requests such as can you bring me the ‘apple’ if you are sat next to a fruit bowl. If your child picks up the apple they already understand even if they don’t speak the word yet. Keep this in mind so you don’t panic about how you’re all doing and remember teaching your child how to be bilingual is a long term lifestyle change. We are bombarded by advertising for learning a language in 3 months but this is not reality.

Preschool years

For some children this will happen in the earlier stage as well but around age 2 is when you will likely see more use of single words in both languages. Children echo what they hear their parents say to communicate and have their needs met. They might ask for ‘more’ in one of their languages for example. Or say ‘read’ or ‘book’ if they would like a story. This will then develop into short phrases or two words together such as ‘me next’. You may notice that they sometimes use one work in a particular language and have a preference for it. My children always said ‘basta’ instead of ‘enough’ even though I could tell they knew what ‘enough’ was in English. I don’t blame them as basta is a more satisfying sound!

Is Language Mixing Normal?

As they progress and use more words together you will find them mixing two languages in one sentence or phrase. This is called ‘code switching’ and is perfectly normal and does not mean there is a language impairment. It occurs as the brain is developing and processing the different words in the child’s vocabulary and eventually they completely separate both. Often it’s thought that children do this to bridge gaps they may have in their vocabulary or because they have a preference for a words in one language over another. My children both did it and now speak both their languages independently.

Early school life

As my children got to around age 5, I noticed that their perception of themselves as dual nationals started to seep into how they felt about speaking two languages. My son especially wanted to fit into his ‘British’ environment and not be half Italian. His desire to speak Italian wasn’t as strong as he was self conscious about being different. My way to help with this was to teach him about some of the amazing things you can see and do in Italy. To show him what that part of him meant in a tangible, visible way. Stepping away from learning words and instead learning about culture changed everything. You can learn more about how we did this HERE.

Fast forward to now, and he’s 14 years old and about to take his GCSE Italian exam at school. GCSE’s are the exams we normally take at 16 in the UK before going to college. So have faith :-)

What Affects Bilingual Development?

If I could share 3 things that would help you in our time-strapped lives to help your child become bilingual it’s these:

Exposure: How many minutes a day your child is exposed to their minority or second language matters. This doesn’t mean that the less exposure you have that you will fail or anything that dramatic it just means the process will take longer. Which little moments of learning over the whole of your baby’s childhood if you quietly keep going is not that bad. They will still learn a second language.

There are books which recommend working out how many minutes a day your child is exposed to their target language and if you are like my husband you will love this type of analysis! But don’t batter yourself with it.

It can be a useful tool to think how you can get some extra time in by swapping how you normally do things. This could be video calls with relatives in the second language. It could be playing a game, or reading a book or listening to music, or watching a film but you swap all those to the target language. Interactive learning resonates with your mind more than a passive activity but using a mix of these can get you where you want to be.

Consistency: Doing these things regularly makes a difference. The same with any habit. Obviously if you miss a week or something happens which throws you off course it’s not the end of the world, just start again. But thinking about what you can do that doesn’t change your already packed schedules too much but you can do it consistently will help. Chat in the car in French every week on the way to football practice. On Sundays always play a board game in Spanish. Sing certain nursery rhymes in Italian (I recommend this crocodile one!) Read the same bedtime story in German until your child knows it off by heart.

Environment: Be aware that your personal environment affects how much you can do and what your challenges will be. So if like us you live in the UK where the language is English and your children go to English speaking schools. Their community language will be English and this will become quite strong for your child. If then one of you is also English like myself, then the amount of English your child is hearing is much more than the second language. So you will want to try and supplement this as much as possible using some of the tools I mention above. In our case this has meant that Italian was less heard or spoken and we’ve had to help this along with extra resources.

If you have two Polish parents speaking Polish at home and their children go to an English school they will have a more even exposure to both languages.

So think about your situation and how you can help that second language become more equal for your children. It doesn’t mean it can’t be done, both our children are English/Italian bilingual it’s just something to consider if you would like to think about it in detail.

How bilingual should you be?

The last point I would make here is that being ‘bilingual’ technically means natively fluent with barely any perceivable accent in either language. This obviously sounds wonderful but if you think about what skill level you would like your child to have it may not be this extreme.

Maybe you would like your child to be able to converse confidently in the second language, perhaps be able to work in that country if they would like and be easily understood. Maybe it’s to be able to communicate with grandparents?

So how fluent you would like them to be and if they have a perceivable accent may not be something you are concerned about. This is all possible and within reach without it taking over your lives and driving your children a bit mad. It takes effort but over 50% of the world’s population function in two or more languages on a daily basis so you or rather your kiddies can do it too!