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It is common for Australian children to grow up with languages other than English in their family lives.

More than report speaking a language other than English at home.

But when it comes time to start school, it's about raising a child to be bilingual or multilingual.

They may wonder, am I harming my child's English development if I speak another language at home?

The short answer is no. Research shows speaking more than one language doesn't hinder a child's academic progress—in fact, it can even help.

What does the research say?

Up until the 1980s, incorrectly suggested early exposure to more than one language could harm a child's academic achievement. But these findings have since been because many of the children in the studies came from economically disadvantaged backgrounds (and so were already disadvantaged in terms of their schooling).

More has found that when socioeconomic status is accounted for, multilingual children are "indistinguishable from their monolingual peers" in literacy and numeracy by the time they are eleven years old. This is provided they have adequate English vocabulary skills by the time they finish Year 2.

Some studies even surpass monolingual children in different academic areas. This English reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation as well as numeracy. Research multilingual students' enhanced mental flexibility from switching between languages may explain their higher academic performance later in school, but this is not yet confirmed.

Do you need to learn one language before starting the other?

Research children can learn multiple languages at the same time, starting from infancy.

This means you don't have to wait for a child to become fluent in one before you start learning another.

Similarly, a child does not have to be a highly skilled English speaker to start to learn to read in English. They can develop their spoken and written/reading language skills .

It is also important to look at children's skills across all the languages they know.

Research on children found multilingual children often had smaller vocabularies in English than their monolingual peers. But they had a healthy range when assessed on words they knew in all languages.

A common misconception is that multilingual children may "confuse" words between languages, but this is not the case. They whom they can communicate with in each language, and switch between languages without much effort.

For example, Valeria's niece Aurora is four and is already fluent in Hungarian, Spanish and Ukrainian. There are videos of Aurora speaking Spanish with her Venezuelan father and grandmother, turning to respond to her grandfather in Hungarian, and switching to Ukrainian to speak with her mother, all in one conversation.

How can I help my child learn multiple languages?

Research it is important a child receives to each language through meaningful interactions with people who speak those languages.

There is no clear definition of the amount needed, but it should be regular—for example, everyday talk with parents or visits or phone calls with grandparents who share the home language.

Also, if you're worried your child isn't getting enough English exposure outside school, . Instead, create other English opportunities, such as in playgroups, daycare, sports teams or other out-of-school activities.

Ultimately, the best thing parents can do to support their children's multilingual learning is filled with native speakers of English and the home language(s).

Staying consistently connected to this community of people who value each language, especially after children start school, will also support a child's motivation to keep growing in each language.