Multilingual Neurodivergent Literacy: Supporting a Child Who Switches Languages
The afternoon sun was coming through the living room window, casting long shadows across the rug where my young daughter sat surrounded by picture books. We had just finished a delightful little story in English about a mischievous dog.
She had read along with me, her voice bright, her body bouncing slightly as she pointed at the illustrations. It was one of those rare, golden moments where reading felt effortless.
Then, I made a mistake.
I reached into the pile beside me and gently slid across a simple Indonesian storybook. It had the same vivid artwork, the same large font, and a very similar storyline. I smiled and said softly, “Let us see what this one says.”
She looked down at the paper. She did not move. Her shoulders pulled up towards her ears, her posture stiffened, and the spark in her eyes vanished. She looked up at me, her lower lip trembling, and whispered, “Too many words.”
Before I could reframe the page or offer a word of encouragement, she burst into tears. It was not a mild whimper; it was a deep, sudden release of frustration. She pushed the book away, buried her face in her hands, and curled up on the carpet.
That moment stayed with me for weeks. As her mother, and as someone working in early childhood education, I did not think the text itself was too difficult. The vocabulary seemed well within her receptive language skills. She understood Indonesian when we spoke it at home. She knew the characters.
What I took from it, and what this guide is about, is a working idea of my own: for some children, the breakdown is less about language ability and more about the effort of starting a task and switching from one language to another.
That is my reading of what I saw, not a research finding, and a child who struggles to read in either language may need more than these ideas.
When a child with ADHD has to stop one task and begin another, the move can ask a great deal of them. Asking a child to leave one language and begin reading in another adds a second shift on top of the first. In my experience, that was often the moment she stopped.
What May Be Happening When a Child Pauses
In the weeks that followed that afternoon, I began to pay much closer attention to what was happening in the quiet seconds right before she attempted to read.
I noticed that whenever we introduced her second language, she would freeze. She would sit completely still, staring at the page without making a sound. Sometimes her eyes would drift to the wall, or she would start twirling a strand of her hair.
In a busy classroom, a teacher watching this might easily misread it. It can look like distraction, task avoidance or refusal. A child glances at the paper, looks over at a peer, gazes out the window, and looks back down without having read a syllable. The easy assumption is that the child lacks focus or needs a firmer prompt.
Through a neurodiversity affirming lens, I came to see that silent gap differently. I now think of it as a pause rather than resistance, and I wondered whether it was a child gathering what she needed to begin.
That is my interpretation. I could not see inside her head, and I cannot tell you what was happening in her brain. What I can say is that she settled more easily when I gave her time, quiet and a sense of safety.
The Skills Involved in Switching Languages
Reading in a language you are still building involves several executive function skills. Researchers commonly describe three core ones: working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility.[1]
- Working memory: holding words, sounds and the sentence so far in mind.
- Inhibitory control: setting aside distractions, and the pull of the other language.
- Cognitive flexibility: shifting from one set of sounds and spellings to another.
Kormos and Smith’s book on teaching languages to students with specific learning differences discusses how language learning draws on skills such as working memory.[2] That book is about students learning additional languages in school, not about young children reading at home, so I use it as background, not proof of what happened in our living room.
It is also worth being honest about what the research does and does not say. A 2022 review of nine studies found no systematic advantage or disadvantage of bilingualism for people with attention difficulties, and the authors noted the evidence is limited.[3]
So I am not claiming that two languages make reading harder for children with ADHD. What I saw was one child, on one afternoon, and then on many similar afternoons.
To help build low-stress foundations before tackling bilingual texts, you could try some of our free printables for gentle, structured early learning tasks.
Where Usual Reading Approaches May Not Fit
When you see your child struggling, your first instinct is to fix it quickly. Mine was no different, and my first attempts followed the conventional methods without much thought for how she was feeling.
In my experience, approaches that treat reading as purely mechanical can sometimes bring on a freeze or tears in a child who is already finding things hard.
The table sets out my own experience, not research findings. These approaches suit many children.
| Common Approach | What May Happen for Some Children | A Gentler Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Pushing through the pause (“Just give it a go!”) | Can add pressure to a moment when a child is already finding it hard to begin. | A calm buffer: Offer 30 to 60 seconds of quiet waiting or a few slow breaths together. |
| Rapid page alternating (one page English, one Indonesian) | Can be tiring if every page asks for a new start. | Block reading: Read a whole story in one language, or move between languages gently with a visual bridge. |
| Oversimplifying (“Just look at the pictures”) | May leave a child feeling that expectations dropped because they failed. | Picture first: Touch the illustrations together before reading the print. |
| Sitting still and quiet | Staying still can take effort that some children need for reading. | Movement allowed: Let a child swing their legs, stand, fidget or hum quietly if it helps them. |
For me, reading was more than input and output. It was tied up with how safe and settled my daughter felt. I found it hard to help with the reading until she felt secure enough to take a risk.
Three Adaptations to Try
Progress began when we stopped treating the pause as a problem to be solved and started treating it as a normal part of our reading routine.
Below are three things we did at home to support multilingual neurodivergent literacy. They come from my own family and practice. I have not found a study that tests them, so treat them as ideas to try and drop whatever does not help.
Adaptation 1: The 30-Second Calm Buffer
We began by changing how we moved between languages. Instead of sliding a new book across the table immediately after finishing the first, we built in a short, calm buffer. We would close the English book, set it aside, and sit together in silence for a few moments.
Implementation Steps:
- Step 1: Physical boundary. Close the finished book and move it out of sight before introducing the second language text.
- Step 2: A reset together. Take three slow belly breaths together, or press hands flat onto a cool wooden surface.
- Step 3: Touch first. Invite your child to trace the outline of the cover artwork on the new book before opening to any text.
“Our English book is finished. We are going to rest our brains for a moment before we look at Indonesian. Let us take two big breaths together first.”
Why I Think It Helped:
In my experience, a short pause marked the end of one task and gave her a calmer start to the next. I cannot say what changed inside her, and I have not found research that tests this exact buffer.
Adaptation 2: Making Room for Humming and Fidgeting
I also began to notice, and protect, the ways my daughter settled herself while reading. When she was preparing to read a difficult Indonesian phrase, she would often hum a low, steady tone, or swing her legs rhythmically against the chair legs.
Implementation Steps:
- Step 1: Reframe it. A low hum, rhythmic leg swing or hair twirling may be how a child gets ready to focus, not a distraction.
- Step 2: Hold back the reminders. Try not to tell a child to stop fidgeting or sit still while they work through a language switch.
- Step 3: Offer tactile options. Provide something to hold, a textured item, or a tracing page. You could practise with some of our free tracing printables.
I have not found research that shows humming or fidgeting helps children decode words, and I do not want to claim it does. It is something I watched help my daughter.
Adaptation 3: Using Pictures as a Bridge
To link two languages without overloading a child, we began using illustrations as anchors rather than decoration.
Implementation Steps:
- Step 1: Touch the picture. Open the page and touch the main illustration together before pointing to any written print.
- Step 2: Agree what it shows. Notice the picture together (for example, a cat) so the idea is clear before the words.
- Step 3: Link the word. Read the word in the new language (kucing) while pointing at the picture.
Some educators prefer to let children move freely between both languages instead, and I have not tested one approach against the other. If your child likes to say the word in both languages, I would welcome that.
“Look at this character on the grass. We see what he is doing first. Now let us find the word that tells us his name in Indonesian.”
Weaving Both Languages Into Play and Routines
As we adapted our home, I realised the reading sessions on the rug were only a small piece of the picture. Sitting at a table to read can carry a lot of pressure. To make reading in two languages feel natural, we wove both languages into low-key moments in everyday life.
We started bringing reading in both languages into play and family routines, where there was far less pressure.
Low-Pressure Ways to Use Both Languages Every Day
Try a few of these to build confidence with switching languages gently:
For more ideas on setting up a calm place to read, see our Sensory Environment hub and our guide on calm corner design.
Questions Parents Often Ask
Does speaking two languages cause speech delays or confusion in children with ADHD?
The research I found does not suggest it does. A 2022 review of nine studies found no systematic advantage or disadvantage of bilingualism for people with attention difficulties, and its authors concluded that families should not worry that additional languages harm cognitive functioning.[3]
The evidence base is small, though. If you are worried about your child’s language development, ask a speech pathologist who works with bilingual children to look at both languages, not only English.
Should I focus on mastering one language before introducing the second?
Not necessarily. If two languages are part of your home, community or culture, keeping both is a reasonable choice. In my experience it helps to avoid rapid switches during a single high-pressure reading session, and to give each language its own calm space.
What if my child refuses to read aloud in our home language?
Refusal can mean many things, including worry about getting it wrong, tiredness, or feeling the task is too big. Step back from reading aloud. Shared reading, echo reading, audiobooks or picture-led storytelling can keep the connection going without the pressure. If the refusal continues for weeks, talk with your child’s teacher or a health professional.
How can I explain my child’s language pauses to their teacher?
You could say that your child often needs extra time before responding or reading in a second language, and does better when given room to think without being prompted. A few extra seconds of wait time is a reasonable thing to ask for.
I have not found a research-backed number, so treat any particular length as a starting point to adjust.
When should I ask for an assessment?
If your child still struggles with reading once they have started, if the difficulty shows in both languages, or if you notice vision, hearing or speech concerns, ask for an assessment. Start with your GP or child and family health nurse and your child’s teacher. Our guide on neurodivergent literacy task initiation has a short section on this.
A Four-Week Starting Plan
This is a gentle plan I would try at home. It is a suggestion from my own practice, not a tested programme, so change it to fit your child:
- Week 1: Protect the pause. Try not to rush hesitation. Build in a 30-second calm buffer between language tasks.
- Week 2: Make room for movement. Allow humming, leg swinging or tactile fidgeting during reading.
- Week 3: Add pictures and low-pressure practice. Touch the picture before the print, and try a bilingual shopping list or recipe card.
- Week 4: Aim for connection. Celebrate effort, humour and shared understanding over error-free reading.
In early childhood circles, multilingualism is often celebrated, and rightly so for the cultural and family connections it keeps alive. Whether it gives children cognitive advantages is debated, and the 2022 review above found none either way for people with attention difficulties.[3] I value it for other reasons.
In our home, I also saw that reading in a second language could place real demands on a neurodivergent child in the early stages of learning to read. I think we sometimes pass over that in our enthusiasm for bilingual education. It was one child’s experience, and others will differ.
Neurodivergent children who read in more than one language are not broken. Where I would put the effort is in processing time, calm, and a feeling of safety, so that reading becomes less of a battle.
When Starting Isn’t the Only Issue
Everything above is about getting started and moving between languages. It does not replace finding out whether a child also finds reading itself hard. Difficulty with reading, language, vision or hearing can all make a child avoid books.
If your child still struggles once they have started, or if the difficulty shows in both languages, talk with their teacher and your GP or child and family health nurse. An optometrist, speech pathologist, educational psychologist, occupational therapist or paediatrician may be able to help. Ask for an assessment that considers both languages, not only English.
Our guide on neurodivergent literacy task initiation covers the starting side in more detail.
Related Guides
How to read this page
Research: a review of executive functions, and a 2022 review of bilingualism and attention difficulties (small evidence base). Background: a book on teaching languages to students with specific learning differences. Experience: the story, the three adaptations, the table and the four-week plan come from my own practice and have not been tested. Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
References
Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750
Kormos, J., & Smith, A. M. (2023). Teaching languages to students with specific learning differences (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781800418622
Köder, F., Sharma, C., Cameron, S., & Garraffa, M. (2022). The effects of bilingualism on cognition and behaviour in individuals with attention deficits: A scoping review. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 1057501. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1057501
Educational Disclaimer: This guide is for general information and education. It draws on early childhood research and lived parenting experience, and it does not replace medical, psychological or developmental advice, diagnosis or treatment.
If you have concerns about your child’s learning, language, vision, hearing or sensory needs, please talk with your GP, child and family health nurse, or an allied health professional such as a speech pathologist, optometrist, occupational therapist, psychologist or paediatrician.
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