Multilingual development advice at the Maternal and Child Health Service

This thesis explores the advice that health professionals provide to culturally and linguistically diverse parents about raising their children in their heritage language. Focusing on the Victorian Maternal and Child Health service, the study involves a series of recorded observations of consultations and follow up interviews with parents, nurses and their team leaders. It explores how and to what extent health professionals and families discuss multilingual development, the barriers that can prohibit discussion around multilingual development, and ways to improve the quality of advice and professional practice in this area.