Raising Bilingual Children in Greece: A Practical Guide for International Families

Updated: 17 August 2026

Describing the language situation of bilingual, trilingual and multilingual children in Greece can be difficult because every family combines languages, nationalities and schooling in a different way.

Children attending a Greek-language school may quickly become more confident in Greek than in the language spoken at home. At an English-language international school, a Chinese, Swedish or Indian child may use one language with family, English during the school day and Greek in the wider community. French or German children attending a foreign national school may receive formal education in a family language while learning Greek mainly through friends and activities outside school.

These are only a few of the possible situations. A child’s progress in each language depends on how often they hear it, who speaks it with them and when they need to use it. Parents may notice that a child still understands the family language but begins answering in the language used at school. Conversations with grandparents may become shorter when the child cannot find the words to describe lessons, friendships or new interests.

Research on bilingual development offers a likely explanation. Children tend to become more fluent in the languages they hear and use most often, particularly through direct conversation. School and friendships can therefore strengthen one language more quickly than the language spoken at home. Families can support the less frequently used language by making it part of daily life and creating meaningful opportunities for the child to speak it.

What parents in Greece should know about bilingual development

Do bilingual children start speaking later?

On average, bilingual children begin speaking at about the same age as monolingual children. In the 2025 study Bilingual Children Reach Early Language Milestones at the Same Age as Monolingual Peers, researchers analysed reports collected through 13 laboratories. They found similar ages for first words and first multiword expressions in bilingual and monolingual children. Learning a greater number of languages did not predict later milestones, although the age at which children began speaking varied widely within both groups.

Children may still progress differently in each of their languages. In their 2025 review A Systems Framework of Bilingual Language Acquisition, Krista Byers-Heinlein, Ruth Kircher and Casey Lew-Williams describe how language development changes with a child’s circumstances. School, childcare, family routines and relocation can all alter how much a child hears and uses each language. The amount and quality of this contact help explain why one language may develop faster than another.

Parents should therefore consider the child’s communication across all their languages. Exposure to several languages does not usually explain a speech delay. A child who has difficulty understanding or communicating across every language they use should be assessed by a professional with experience in multilingual development.

How should parents understand bilingual vocabulary?

A bilingual toddler’s vocabulary is often distributed across two languages. The child may know some words only in Greek, others only in French and some in both languages. An assessment conducted only in French would therefore miss part of the child’s knowledge.

Researchers use different methods to measure this. Total vocabulary counts every word the child knows in both languages. If the child knows both dog and σκύλος (dog in Greek), the two words are counted separately. Concept vocabulary counts the meaning only once because both words refer to the same concept.

In the 2024 study Sometimes Larger, Sometimes Smaller: Measuring Vocabulary in Monolingual and Bilingual Infants and Toddlers, researchers assessed the French and English vocabulary of 743 children aged between 8 and 33 months. Comparisons with monolingual children produced different results depending on whether the researchers measured one language, all known words or the number of concepts represented.

Can bilingualism cause a language disorder?

Parents should know that developmental language disorder can affect children who speak one language or several. It can make it difficult for a child to understand language, express ideas, learn new words or form sentences. Learning two or more languages does not cause the disorder. A bilingual child may have a language disorder, but multilingual exposure is not the reason it develops.

Some features of multilingual development can be mistaken for signs of a disorder. A child may know different words in each language, mix languages within a sentence or speak one language more confidently than another. These patterns often reflect how much the child hears and uses each language. A language disorder can affect a child across their languages, although it may appear differently in each one.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents and caregivers to use the languages in which they communicate most comfortably. Dropping the family language does not treat a speech or language difficulty. It may also make it harder for the child to communicate with parents, grandparents and other relatives.

How should a multilingual child be assessed?

A systematic review collects and assesses findings from earlier research. The 2024 paper The Use of Language Sample Analysis to Differentiate Developmental Language Disorder From Typical Language in Bilingual Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis reviewed 35 existing studies of children aged between two and eleven who spoke more than 40 languages.

In those studies, professionals recorded children speaking naturally and examined features such as grammar and sentence structure. Looking at a child’s speech in context can help a specialist distinguish the expected effects of learning several languages from difficulties that may indicate developmental language disorder. The review also found that more work is needed to determine how accurately these methods identify the disorder across different languages.

Parents should seek professional advice when difficulties with understanding or communication appear across the languages the child knows. They should also ask for help if the child loses abilities previously used or continues to struggle to express basic needs.

In Greece, ask whether the speech and language therapist has experience assessing multilingual children. The assessment should consider all the languages the child hears and uses, when each language was introduced and how much contact the child has with each one.

What about autism and other developmental differences?

Families are sometimes advised to use one language with an autistic child or a child with another developmental difference. In the 2023 systematic review Language and Communication Skills in Multilingual Children on the Autism Spectrum, researchers found no evidence that multilingual exposure harms the language or communication skills of autistic children. They also noted the need for larger studies involving a wider range of children.

The practical question is which languages the child needs to communicate with parents, siblings, teachers and clinicians. Advice should reflect the child’s communication profile and the languages each caregiver can use naturally.

Why do bilingual children mix languages?

Moving between languages during a conversation is known as code-switching and is common among bilingual children. A child may use a word from the school language while speaking the family language or change language when another person joins the conversation. This often happens because a word comes to mind more easily in one language. The child may have learned it at school and never needed its equivalent at home. They may also switch because everyone present understands both languages.

The 2026 systematic review Language Mixing in Young Multilingual Children and Its Correlates brought together findings from 80 studies of children aged between two and six. Language mixing appeared more often when children used their less dominant language, received less input in that language or were speaking in informal multilingual settings. Results differed according to the kind of mixing being measured. Mixing languages on its own therefore tells parents little about whether a child is confused or experiencing a language difficulty.

Parents can introduce the missing word naturally when they reply. If a child asks for νερό (water in Greek), the parent can answer using the family language and include the equivalent word. This allows the child to hear it while the conversation continues. Repeated corrections can interrupt the exchange and may discourage the child from speaking.

What if your child understands but answers in another language?

Some children understand the family language well but prefer to answer in the language they use at school or with friends. This often happens because speaking requires more vocabulary and confidence than understanding.

Continue speaking the family language without demanding that every answer be repeated or corrected. Pretending not to understand can turn an ordinary conversation into a test, particularly with older children.

Create situations in which the child has a genuine reason to use the language. They might speak with a relative who does not know the child’s school language, order food during a visit to the family’s home country or join an activity with other children who speak it. The aim is to make the language useful without placing pressure on every conversation.

How parents can support the family language

Map the languages in your child’s life

Begin with an ordinary week. Write down which language the child uses during lessons, with friends, at activities, with extended family and while reading or watching media. Include the conversations in which the child listens but rarely replies.

The pattern may look very different according to the school. In a Greek state or private school, children receive sustained contact with Greek through lessons and friendships. At an English-language international school, they may use English for most of the day and encounter Greek mainly outside school. Children attending a French, German or other foreign national school may already receive formal education and literacy teaching in a family language.

The language with the fewest places in the child’s week will usually need more deliberate support. A child educated in Greek may need more opportunities to speak and read the family language. A child educated in English may need planned support for Greek and the language used at home. The map gives parents a clearer basis for deciding what to add.

Give the family language a visible place at home

The 2026 study Family Language Policy and Homescapes Among Multilingual Families in Greece examined how multilingual families make their language and culture present inside the home. Drawing on a small sample of 15 interviews with Serbian mothers and children in Greece, Anastasia Gkaintartzi looked at the materials children could see, reach and use during everyday life.

For parents, this means placing books in the family language where children can choose them, watching programmes in that language together and keeping games or music within easy reach. These materials create ordinary opportunities to hear, read and use the language. A child is more likely to treat the language as part of daily family life when it appears outside scheduled lessons and requests to practise.

Choose a strategy that matches family life

One Parent One Language

One Parent One Language, usually shortened to OPOL, is a family language approach in which each parent regularly speaks a different language with the child. The child gradually associates each language with a particular parent. OPOL can provide steady contact with both languages when both parents have enough time for regular conversation with the child.

In the 2025 study Like Mother Like Child: Differential Impact of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Individual Language Use on Bilingual Language Exposure, researchers examined Canadian families with infants and toddlers learning French and English. They found that the name of a family’s chosen strategy revealed little about how much of each language the child actually heard. The language each parent used during daily life was far more important.

Two families may both follow OPOL while giving their children very different levels of exposure. One child may spend several hours each day with both parents. Another may hear one parent’s language only briefly before bedtime. The regular contact a child receives with each language matters more than the label given to the family’s approach.

OPOL may suit families whose routines allow both parents to have frequent conversations with the child. Other families may use the less widely spoken language throughout the home or connect different languages with particular people and activities. Parents should choose an arrangement that supports natural family communication and gives the less frequently heard language a regular place in the child’s week.

When parents disagree

A plan becomes difficult to maintain when one parent feels excluded from conversation or when every change of language causes an argument. Decide which situations matter most. One parent may keep using the family language during time alone with the child, while shared meals use a language everyone understands. Revisit the arrangement when work, childcare or school hours change. Consistency helps, but the plan must leave room for ordinary family conversation.

How siblings change the balance

Older siblings often bring the school language home. Younger children may hear the family language from a parent but use the school language while playing with a brother or sister. Parents cannot control every exchange, and punishment is likely to make the family language feel burdensome. Shared games, visits with cousins and tasks that require the family language can widen its place without policing private sibling talk.

Support the language at different ages

With babies and toddlers, conversation during meals, dressing, play and walks supplies language tied to immediate experience. Recorded programmes cannot replace responsive talk with another person. Songs and picture books can help when an adult joins in and responds to the child.

Primary school brings new vocabulary and a larger social world. Children need words in the family language for lessons, friendships and interests, as well as household routines. Reading together, speaking with relatives and spending time with other children who use the language can fill some of those gaps.

Teenagers usually want reasons that belong to them. Music, sport, films, friendships, travel or a formal qualification can give the language a personal purpose. A teenager may reject a book chosen by a parent while following a creator or football club in the same language. Parents can expect respectful family communication without turning every sentence into a lesson.

Use video calls and media well

A regular call with a grandparent or relative can create genuine conversation, especially when the adult and child share an activity such as reading a short book, showing a toy or cooking. A long call built around repeated questions may produce very little speech. Shorter calls with something to do often work better.

Television, podcasts, games and online videos add voices and subjects that may be missing at home. Their value depends on attention, comprehension and what happens afterwards. Ask about the story or play the game together. Passive listening can increase contact with a language, but it gives the child less practice in forming a reply.

Develop reading and writing in the family language

Children who speak a language may still be unable to read it. This becomes more important as they grow older because books and digital text introduce subjects that home conversation may never cover.

Begin at the child’s actual reading level in that language. A fluent reader of English may need a simple book when learning to read Italian, although the subject should still suit the child’s age.

Languages using a different script require direct teaching. Speaking Arabic will not teach a child to read Arabic script. The same applies to Chinese characters and Cyrillic. Short sessions held regularly may fit family life better than another heavy block of homework.

Consider how school choice changes the balance

Parents should ask which language children use socially as well as which language appears in the curriculum. They should also ask how the school supports pupils who are still learning the language of instruction and whether it provides literacy teaching in any of the child’s other languages.

Xpat.gr’s guide to choosing the right school in Greece discusses the wider educational decision. The guide to international and foreign schools in Greece compares curricula, languages of instruction and school options.

Greek gives children access to local life and greater independence as they grow. Families can continue using their own language while supporting Greek. Xpat.gr’s guide to learning Greek as an expat family offers practical ideas for parents and children.

Make a realistic family language plan

Use the language map to identify the area that needs attention. A child who understands well but rarely speaks needs another reason to use the language. Confident speakers who cannot read need literacy support. Children who experience the language mainly through lessons may need relaxed contact with relatives or other children.

Choose one change the family can maintain. This could be a weekly call with a cousin, a Saturday class, regular reading before bed or an activity with other speakers. A demanding plan that lasts for two weeks will achieve less than a modest arrangement that becomes part of family life.

Review the plan after a change of school, childcare or country. The balance between languages will keep changing because the child’s life is changing.

Prepare for another international move

If a future school will teach in another language, find out what reading and writing the child will need before arrival. Keep school reports and ask teachers to describe the child’s ability in the current language of instruction. A language used mainly in conversation may need formal literacy work if it will later become a school language.

Find language connections in Greece

Bilingual experiences from Greece

Families who want to learn more about bilingual and multilingual development in Greece may find με 2 γλώσσες (With Two Languages), the Greek branch and partner organisation of Bilingualism Matters, a useful resource. The initiative is based at the School of English at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and explains research on bilingualism in accessible language for families and educators.

In Greece, the initiative is directed by Marina Mattheoudakis, Professor in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics at the School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The wider Bilingualism Matters network was founded at the University of Edinburgh by Professor Antonella Sorace and connects researchers, educators and families interested in bilingualism.

Its testimonials section is particularly interesting. It presents first-person accounts from people with Romanian and Greek, Greek and German, Turkish and Greek, English and Greek, Dutch and Greek, Russian and Greek, Greek and Italian, French and Greek, and other language combinations. Some participants describe the language of school becoming stronger than the language used at home. Others discuss learning to read and write the family language, choosing a language according to the person or situation, or worrying about mistakes when they speak.

Parents and older children can read the written testimonials and watch the recorded interviews directly on the With Two Languages website.

Connect through embassies and community events

Embassies may organise or support national celebrations, exhibitions, film screenings and community events. Some activities are open to families, while others have age limits or require registration. An embassy may also direct parents to national associations or community schools.

Xpat.gr’s complete guide to embassies and consulates in Greece provides contact details for diplomatic missions across the country.

Some embassies in Greece are also active on social media, where they share cultural events, public programmes and community announcements. Here are some verified Instagram accounts you may wish to follow. The account details were checked in August 2026:

• Australia: @ausembgr
• Azerbaijan: @azembassygreece
• China: @chinaemb_hellas
• Cyprus: @cyprusembassygreece
• India: @indiainathens
• Indonesia: @indonesiainathens
• Ireland: @embassyofirelandgreece
• Japan: @japan_in_greece
• Kazakhstan: @kazembassygr
• Kuwait: @athens.kw
• Nigeria: @embassyofnigeriagreece
• Norway: @norwayingreece
• Pakistan: @pakingreece
• Sweden: @swedeningreece
• Thailand: @rteathens
• United Arab Emirates: @athensemb
• United Kingdom: @ukingreece
• United States: @usembassyathens

Cultural and language institutes

French courses and cultural events are available through the Institut français de Grèce. For German, the Goethe Institut Athens and Goethe Institut Thessaloniki offer courses, examinations, library services and cultural programmes. Spanish teaching and cultural activities are provided by the Instituto Cervantes in Athens. Italian language and culture courses are available through the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Atene, associated with Casa d’Italia.

The British Council Greece offers English programmes for children and teenagers. English-language education and public cultural events are also available through the Hellenic American Union. Programmes change during the year, so parents should check current age groups and admission arrangements.

Foreign national and community schools may also help families find activities connected with their language. Xpat.gr’s international schools guide includes French, German and Italian schools, as well as the Libyan School and the Philippine School in Greece. Families should contact each school directly to ask whether any activities welcome children who are not enrolled.

Sources

• με 2 γλώσσες (With Two Languages), Bilingualism Matters Greece, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
• Bilingualism Matters, University of Edinburgh
• A Systems Framework of Bilingual Language Acquisition, 2025
• Bilingual Children Reach Early Language Milestones at the Same Age as Monolingual Peers, 2025
• Sometimes Larger, Sometimes Smaller: Measuring Vocabulary in Monolingual and Bilingual Infants and Toddlers, 2024
• The Use of Language Sample Analysis to Differentiate Developmental Language Disorder From Typical Language in Bilingual Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, 2024
• Like Mother Like Child: Differential Impact of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Individual Language Use on Bilingual Language Exposure, 2025
• Language and Communication Skills in Multilingual Children on the Autism Spectrum, 2023
• Language Mixing in Young Multilingual Children and Its Correlates: A Systematic Review, 2026
• Family Language Policy and Homescapes Among Multilingual Families in Greece, 2026