Compared to mastering a single language, the process of becoming bilingual in the child's first few years of life has been much less comprehensively studied, and therefore remains all the more enigmatic and intriguing. The title of this book, The Bilingual Child, is intended to refer generically to a child who learns two languages in early childhood. The book tells the stories of how six children became bilingual in Cantonese and English given exposure to both languages from birth. We provide a detailed account of how childhood bilingualism develops naturally in response to the two languages in their environment. This intimate account is presented through our dual perspectives as parent-researchers continuously observing and participating in our own three children's bilingual experience.

Parents and researchers alike often raise basic questions such as the following about children's bilingual development:

• Are two languages too many for a child?

• Do children confuse the two languages?

• Can they be equally proficient in both?

• If children have a ‘language instinct’ as has often been suggested, how does this instinct cope with two languages at the same time?

While the book reports an abundance of research findings, we also hope to alleviate some typical concerns of parents and demonstrate that two languages are not a burden for a child, and that children have the ability to differentiate the two languages from early on. They can develop high proficiency in both, though one language may develop ahead of the other.