When children start school, parents usually worry about how well they will do academically, whether they will manage the new responsibilities and settle in socially finding new friends.
Parents of heritage language speaking children are also concerned about the children’s double language load: will they be able to participate fully in class if they speak little English? How will the limited English skills impact their schoolwork and settling in? What about the heritage language? Will it continue to develop when there is so much input from English? Should you prioritize English now to support your child in their schoolwork?
This is a complex situation; however, the advice is that parents need to use the heritage language at home as much as possible. The work that will go into the maintenance and growth of the language will also help children to learn English, learn to read and write and grow their numeracy, cognitive skills, and abstract reasoning necessary in the later school years.