The emotional development of bilingual children

A bilingual child’s development will differ from the monolingual’s development not only linguistically but also cognitively. Here, we are particularly interested in bilingual’s emotional development.

Approximately half of the world’s children grow up in a bilingual environment. Growing up as a bilingual is thus a frequent phenomenon.

However, development in bilingual children differs in some aspects compared to monolingual children, not only regarding language, but also when it comes to some aspects of cognition.

Evaluation standards and tests to monitor children’s development are nonetheless based on monolingual standards. In order to improve those instruments, more basic research on the development of bilingual children is needed.

In this project, we are particularly interested in the emotional development of bilingual children and in their understanding of emotions.