When children grow up in an English-speaking environment, their use of Ukrainian often gradually decreases, especially if they have few opportunities to speak, listen to, or read it regularly. This gradual loss of language skills is known as language attrition.
Language attrition can appear in different ways: children may forget certain words, mix up grammar, or lose confidence when speaking Ukrainian, even if they were once quite fluent. For children from immigrant families, this often happens because they use the dominant community language—such as English—more frequently at school, with friends, and through media than they use their heritage language.
This is a natural process, but it highlights the importance of maintaining a consistent language environment. The good news is that language attrition can be slowed down or even reversed through regular practice and meaningful use of Ukrainian at home, in class, and during cultural activities. When children see that their language is valued and actively used in everyday life, they are much more motivated to preserve it.
Our goal is to support you in keeping Ukrainian a living language for your children and a meaningful, cherished part of their lives. We do this through engaging lessons, learning about and practicing Ukrainian traditions, and building a strong community. Active involvement from parents also plays a key role in this important effort.
Research shows that many children from multilingual families begin shifting toward the dominant language of their community (for example, English in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom) as early as ages 3–5, especially when their heritage language is not supported outside the home.
In the United States, only 17% of second-generation children (born in the U.S. to immigrant parents) are proficient in their heritage language, according to the Pew Research Center.
Without consistent use and support, heritage language skills decline sharply within just two generations. At this stage, only 5% of children speak their parents’ native language at a native-speaker level.
Research shows that to develop and maintain functional proficiency in a heritage language, children need at least 20–30% of their daily language exposure to be in that language. Regular use helps maintain and strengthen their language skills.
Children lose language skills more quickly when they stop using a language because their brains are still developing linguistic structures. Adults may retain passive knowledge of a language longer, even as their fluency declines.
