We’re a research-based advisory service for parents raising bilingual or multilingual children. Whether you have questions about using different languages at home, navigating school choices or wonder what to expect in your child’s bilingual or multilingual development, we offer personalized, non-judgmental advice grounded in current research.

We don’t prescribe solutions, but we listen carefully to your questions and offer discussion and resources.

This service is non-clinical and capacity may be limited.

Receive customized advice

After the appointment, our trained advisers will analyze your questions, look for current research-based guidance and email you a response. The response may also point you to additional resources, such as websites, books, podcasts or blogs.

Stay connected

Six months after your appointment, we'll follow up to check in on how things are going and whether the advice you’ve received has been helpful. If you have additional questions, you’re welcome to get in touch at any point.

Research project

This service is also a research project. If you give us permission, we may use some of the information you provide to improve our service, support other families and do research on parental questions, concerns, attitudes, beliefs and strategies. We will give you a consent form where you can indicate your preferences about the use of your data.

The research project has been approved by the University of Ottawa Research Ethics Board.

Knowledge dissemination

We sometimes present our research findings through conferences, workshops or publications.

FLAS was created and is led by Prof. Nikolay Slavkov, Research Chair in Language Policy at the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute of the University of Ottawa. Graduate students in the Bilingualism Studies program work with Prof. Slavkov in scheduling appointments for families, meeting with parents, identifying appropriate resources and preparing responses to parents.