Mother tongue: It just feels like home when I speak Portuguese

Parents who speak more than one language at home can worry their children may be confused or may take longer to speak, but researchers say bilingualism helps cognitive development, improving attention and task-switching capacities

Darragh Turner and Jessika Guarezi, who is from Brazil, with their daughter Hayley at their home in Greenmount, Cork. Picture Dan Linehan

When 20-month-old Hayley Guarezi Turner wants a drink, she asks her dad for “water” and her mum for “agua” — the same drink in two different languages.

“It’s crazy! Nobody told her to speak Portuguese to me and English to her dada. She just picked it up,” says Jessika Guarezi, who grew up in São Paulo, Brazil.