Silencing the mother tongue makes it harder for bilingual children to learn English "If you downgrade your heritage language, you deprive a child of access to a whole lot of enriching experiences that can also impact on their reading ability and access to the school curriculum." Allyssa McCabe, Professor of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Lowell Pediatricians, teachers, speech-language therapists and other practitioners should encourage parents whose native language is not the one spoken by the majority of a society to speak that minority language with their children, especially if it is the one in which the parent is most fluent. Read the story! English, French, German or Spanish. Facebook Twitter Website