Reading Out Loud in Multilingual Families: Why, When, Where and How

Reading out loud with multilingual children is one of the simplest, yet most powerful habits we can cultivate at home. In addition to fostering personal and emotional connection, reading out loud with our children is a fun way to build vocabulary and increase exposure to the home language(s).

Why Is Reading Out Loud So Important?

As we know, routines, rituals, and predictable daily activities are crucial for young children, because predictability helps children make sense of a world that is still new and unpredictable to them.

Shared reading moments, therefore, can become grounding rituals and bring with them a wide range of benefits. Let’s look at these benefits below.

Emotional Benefits

I love reading with my children so, yes, I’m a bit biased 🙂 But besides my own experience, many experts maintain that reading out loud with children is a powerful practice.

In the opening pages of her book The Enchanted Hour, children’s literature expert Meghan Cox Gurdon beautifully captures the quiet miracle that takes place during shared reading:

The time we spend reading aloud is like no other time. A miraculous alchemy takes place when one person reads to another, one that converts the ordinary stuff of life—a book, a voice, a place to sit, and a bit of time—into astonishing fuel for the heart, the mind, and the imagination.¹

When we curl up in a cozy spot with our children, we’re carving out a moment of deep intimacy. The undivided attention we give out children in that moment—and the strong bond that forms from sharing the simple act of looking at the same book, directing our eyes and focus toward a common object—creates a sense of connection and a safe and comforting space that children (and we adults!) will want to return to.

As Canadian psychologist Susan Pinker writes, when parents and children cuddle up together to read a book:

A tsunami of neurochemical benefits gets unleashed when a parent and child cuddle together over a book. Stress and anxiety downshift, for starters. As soon as the parent puts his or her arms around the child hormones flood their bloodstreams, relaxing them and engendering mutual trust.²

Cognitive and Linguistic Benefits

In addition to emotional benefits, reading out loud with multilingual children has linguistic and cognitive advantages.

In Proust and the Squid, cognitive neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf tells the fascinating story of how reading developed: how writing systems were invented, how reading works in the brain, how language and literacy skills emerge in children, and what challenges are faced by some readers. It’s a dense and, at times, demanding read, but if you’re interested in understanding how reading shapes the mind, this book is a must read!

Wolf explains that reading out loud in the preschool years is one of the key predictors of a child’s ability to learn to read later on. Listening to rich and complex stories supports the development of foundational skills for written language, such as phonological awareness and vocabulary comprehension. In turn, this kind of exposure helps the brain form the connections needed to become a reader. And this is true for the home language(s) as well.

Reading Out Loud Supports Multilingual Language Development

For all the reasons we’ve just explored, reading out loud in the home language(s) is a powerful ally in supporting multilingual children’s development.

To encourage children to communicate in the home language(s), it’s essential to create positive associations with those languages. And what better way than through a daily moment of cuddles and stories?

Establishing a consistent, enjoyable routine connected to the family’s home languages can make a real difference in the long term. It creates at least one moment each day that is dedicated entirely to nurturing that language.

Reading also exposes children to vocabulary, syntax, and narrative structures that go beyond what they typically hear in spoken language. In this way, their language input grows not only in quantity but also in richness and complexity.

As Wolf Writes:

The more children are spoken to, the more they will understand oral language. The more children are read to, the more they understand all the language around them, and the more developed their vocabulary becomes.³

and

Equally important is the syntax or grammatical structure found here [in a written text], which is largely absent from the stuff of everyday speech.⁴

Creating Meaningful Reading Out Loud Routines in the Home Language(s)

When Is he Best Time to Read Out Loud with your Multilingual Children?

What are the best times of day to read with your children? Any and all!

In many families, mine included, reading out loud is part of the evening bedtime routine.

It’s a gentle way to wind down: the dimmed lights and lowered energy-levels help children transition into sleep and nighttime (a moment of uncertainty that can be especially hard for little ones). It makes perfect sense that a low-energy activity like reading would fit into this part of the day.

However, bedtime isn’t the only great time to read. Any time of day that works for you and your children is the perfect time to share a book.

When my oldest son was young, we always read in the evening. But after his sister was born and I was having an exhausting postpartum, reading out loud together became the only way I could carve out meaningful one-on-one time with him. I didn’t have the energy for active games or outings, but I could sit and read.

The same thing happened when our third child was born: suddenly I had a four-year-old on one side and a two-year-old on the other, each with their book(s) to read.

In this way, reading out loud became a time for connection and quality time. Now, when my children feel tired, upset, or overstimulated, they often ask me to tuck away with a book. For us, reading is not just a habit: it’s a self-soothing ritual and a way to reconnect emotionally.

Where Should You Read?

What else do you need besides a good book, your voice, and the desire to spend some time together?

Not much else: just a quiet, tucked-away spot. A corner of the couch, a pile of pillows on the floor, a special armchair in the kids’ room, or even mom and dad’s bed can all become the perfect place for your reading out loud ritual.

If you’d like to make your reading space even more inviting, you might consider adding a child-sized armchair and some low bookshelves, especially the kind that display books with the covers facing out (sometimes called “Montessori bookcases”). Little touches like these can make the space feel special and encourage children to reach for a book on their own.

In What Language Should You Read?

One of the questions I hear most often from the multilingual parents I work with is some version of: “In what language am I supposed to read?”

Especially if you live abroad, it’s not always easy to find children’s books in the family’s home language(s).

So what do you do? Do you read in the language the book is written in, or translate on the fly? And what if the text is written in rhyme?

As with most things in multilingual parenting, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. The best choice is the one that works for your family and keeps reading out loud a joyful experience for everyone.

With that in mind, here are a few practical tips for reading in the home language(s), from my personal experience and that of my clients:

If You Don’t Have the Book in Your Home Language, You Can…

• Look for a good translation online (YouTube is a great resource!) and use it as inspiration to translate on the spot, or jot down your version on sticky notes and place them in the book. This trick works especially well for picture books and books with minimal text.
• Translate as you go, if that feels comfortable.
• Retell the story in your own words.
• Simply say: “This is a book you read in [insert language] with mom/dad/at school.”

If you’re reading in a language that’s not your native one, don’t worry too much about your accent: reading out loud to multilingual children still has tremendous value. Kids will learn just fine as long as they also receive rich and varied input from other speakers (like teachers, relatives, or caregivers).

There Is No Perfect Plan. There Is What Works for You

Every family is different. What matters most is creating a warm, low-pressure reading routine that you and your child enjoys.

Whether you’re reading in Italian, English, or another home language, the goal is the same: to connect, to enjoy stories together, and to build strong, joyful foundations for language and literacy.

In my family, over time, we’ve come to a few decisions that work well for us:

• Reading together is a priority, even when it takes effort.
• At home, we prioritize our minority languages (Italian and Cantonese), following the OPOL (One Person, One Language) approach, because our children already receive high-quality English input from school and the broader environment.
• We often translate books on the fly, even rhyming texts, although we know some of the magic gets lost. For certain classics (like Dr. Seuss or Goodnight Moon), we’ve sought out published Italian or Cantonese translations.

I truly believe that, with the right tools and a bit of trial and error, every family can find its own balance. What matters most is that reading out loud with multilingual children remains a joyful, meaningful, and, whenever possible, consistent part of daily life.

Are You Ready to Start Reading with Your Multilingual Children?

I hope that this article has inspired you to start reading out loud with your multilingual children!

If Italian is one of your family languages and you’re eager to begin, I’ve put together a list of ten book recommendations for ages 0–8.

If you would you like support with reading (and writing) in Italian in your family, you can get in touch for a personalized consultation. I’ll help you integrate books, routines, and everyday activities that strengthen all the languages spoken at home.

1. Meghan Cox Gurdon, The Enchanted Hour, p. xiii ↩︎
2. Quoted in Meghan Cox Gurdon, The Enchanted Hour, p. 46 ↩︎
3. Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid, p. 84 ↩︎
4. Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid, p. 87 ↩︎