People use different communication patterns based on the context and who they are addressing. These differences, known as linguistic register, are common across human speech and recognized early in development. Here, we examine 4-11-year-old American children's (N = 227) ability to use linguistic registers to determine a speaker's addressee as…

This paper invites us to reconsider our usual understanding of infancy, no longer as something that passes but as "infantia." The Latin word "infantia," which is not easy to translate, means a lack of speech, a lack of eloquence, and also infancy, babyhood, and dumbness. Drawing on Barbara Cassin's works on the untranslatables,…

This article examines caregivers' everyday language choices and interactions with children in an urban Zapotec community in Mexico, where Diidxazá is being displaced by Spanish in everyday use. It argues that caregivers' language choices and interactions get entangled in complex ways with the socio-cultural organization of everyday life and with…

This study explored whether the directionality of the relation between majority language and various facets of socioemotional development (three to 5 years old) differs between children with different language backgrounds. 12,951 children (49% girls; 85% White, 6% Pakistani and Bangladeshi, 3% Black, 3% Mix, 2% Indian) from the British Millennium…

Multilingual families face decisions about the linguistic upbringing of their children. These decisions shape their family language policy (FLP) which potentially impacts the children and their family. Departing from this hypothesis we conducted a systematic literature review applying the PRISMA guidelines, screening three databases, using search…

Many parents express concerns for their children's multilingual development, yet little is known about the nature and strength of these concerns - especially among parents in multilingual societies. This pre-registered, questionnaire-based study addresses this gap by examining the concerns of 821 Quebec-based parents raising infants and toddlers…

This study examines how a high-pressure family language policy (FLP) is implemented in South Korea, focusing on the experiences of a family with a preschool-aged child, Jay. The phenomenon of "English fever," which has led to the widespread adoption of intensive early childhood English education, has contributed to the increasing…

Given their significance in daily life and frequent inclusion in clinical and educational assessments, children's narrative abilities merit investigation. The present study examines the narratives of children acquiring an additional language, adding to the more abundant studies of monolingual children. Sixty kindergartners (mean age 68 months)…

Bilingual children, the majority of whom are Spanish-English learners, now constitute over a third of the preschool population in the United States (Migration Policy Institute, 2021). Bilingual children and their families face multiple barriers to high-quality early childhood education, which are largely due to the underutilization of culturally…

This report examines the critical role of home visitors in supporting dual language development among Latino children, who represent a growing share of the U.S. population. Through surveys and interviews with home visitors, UnidosUS identified gaps in training and resources needed to effectively serve culturally and linguistically diverse…

This investigation of translanguaging is grounded upon the ubiquitous theme of "structures" explicitly and implicitly found in the translanguaging literature. Through this theme, this paper begins by providing a novel theoretical framework followed by considering the need for translanguaging (e.g., education's growth of multilingualism;…

The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of non-Arab preschool teachers' experiences in assessing Arabic-English dual language learners (DLLs) in classrooms using a well-established, teacher scored authentic assessment of early childhood holistic development. Moreover, this study explored parents' experiences by discussing these…

This paper explores the connection between nurses' multilingual beliefs and their advice on multilingual parenting to families with young children. Data was gathered through video-stimulated reflection dialogues with 11 nurses employed at infant welfare clinics in Belgium. Our analysis disclosed two salient counter topics regarding participants'…

It is said that children are amazing at acquiring their first language (L1); by the time they reach school age, they are using complex grammar and demonstrating a wide vocabulary. Even more impressive, these young learners might show up at school with two languages in their toolbox or add a second language (L2) with far less effort than older…

This study examined the oral language use and classroom involvement of 1,124 preschool children in the United States, focusing on three home languages: English, Spanish, and Burmese. Two-way ANOVA analysis revealed distinct patterns among the language groups. Burmese-speaking children were more likely to listen to teachers and engage in academic…