Multilingualism in Preschool – an Asset for Children’s Development

Updated 7 August 2026

In our multicultural society, multilingualism is everyday life – and a richness. With us, children develop Swedish and English side by side, while every child’s mother tongue is seen as the asset it is: for identity, for cultural understanding and for language development as a whole.

All languages enrich each other

Children who are given the opportunity to develop several languages in parallel use all of their linguistic resources to think, listen and speak – and the languages strengthen each other rather than compete. In its material Greppa flerspråkigheten (“Grasping multilingualism”), the Swedish National Agency for Education describes multilingualism exactly that way: as a resource for learning and teaching, not an obstacle to overcome. Exactly which cognitive effects multilingualism brings is still debated in research, but the most important point is well established:

In our everyday life this means creating meaningful contexts where the languages are used for real – in play, at the table and in circle time. We encourage children to use all of their linguistic resources and offer stories, songs and forms of expression that reflect the children’s different frames of reference. Three languages fit in one and the same child – here is how they belong together with us:

But language is never just words and grammar – it carries something bigger.

Culture, identity – and your mother tongue

Multilingualism also lays the foundation for children’s understanding of different languages and cultures, fully in line with the curriculum’s goal that preschool should promote an understanding of the value of diversity. Understanding and appreciating different cultural perspectives strengthens children’s empathy and creates a sense of global citizenship.

Here, you as parents are our most important partners. Together we map your child’s linguistic resources and make a plan for how home and preschool can support language development:

• Read aloud and talk in your mother tongue at home – it strengthens all of your child’s languages, including Swedish.
• Tell us which languages your family speaks, and we will weave them into everyday life.
• Share songs, books and traditions from your culture – they enrich the whole group.

One thing is often confused: mother-tongue support and our bilingual profile are two different things. Mother-tongue support means that, according to the curriculum, every preschool in Sweden should give children with a mother tongue other than Swedish the opportunity to develop both Swedish and their mother tongue. Our Swedish-English profile is something else: with us, English is a natural part of everyday life for all children, with Swedish as the foundation. The two do not exclude each other – your child’s mother tongue is always an asset with us.

With the right support and approach, multilingualism becomes a valuable foundation for children’s linguistic, cognitive and social development – and for their future learning and participation in a multicultural society.

Greppa flerspråkigheten – a resource for learning and teaching (Swedish National Agency for Education, in Swedish)
The Institute for Language and Folklore (Isof)

This article was translated from the Swedish original with the help of AI.

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