For many immigrant families, one of the earliest signs that a child is settling into life in the United States is also one of the first quiet worries. Children pick up English quickly. Then, just as quickly, many grow less comfortable speaking the language of home.
Researchers and educators have long made the same point: a heritage language is not only a tool for communication. It is tied to identity, family relationships, learning, and emotional development. According to an educator brief from the Immigration Initiative at Harvard, preserving heritage languages while children learn English supports healthy development and learning among immigrant-origin children.
The concern matters because so many immigrant children are growing up between a home language and a school system that runs mostly in English. The Migration Policy Institute’s English Language Learner Information Center examines the demography and trends of immigrant families and their children who are English learners, a population that has grown substantially in U.S. schools over recent decades.
The squeeze at home
For parents, the challenge is usually practical. Children hear and speak English almost everywhere: at school, with friends, in sports, on television, and online. At home, parents may work to keep up Dari, Spanish, Arabic, Pashto, Korean, Vietnamese, Nepali, or another family language. But work schedules, stress, limited time, and a child’s wish to fit in can slowly wear that effort down.
New research is beginning to look at how technology might help. A 2026 study on immigrant language preservation through family-based play found that immigrants felt a strong motivation to keep their language alive but ran into limited institutional support, time constraints, and English-dominant surroundings that widen the language gap between parents and children. The researchers worked with Nepali immigrant families and explored interactive, family-centered technology as one possible form of support.
More than an education issue
This is not only an education story. It is a family one.
When children lose ease with their heritage language, conversations with parents and grandparents can grow thinner. Family stories become harder to pass down. A sense of cultural identity can begin to feel more fragile. At the same time, parents do not want to slow their children’s English or leave them feeling caught between two worlds.
Most experts do not frame this as a choice between English and the heritage language. The stronger goal is both: helping children thrive in the language of school while keeping a living connection to the language of family, memory, and belonging.
