Mehrsprachig aufwachsen - Chance oder Risikofaktor?

hildren growing up with more than one language become more and more common in Germany. In general bilingualism is very common worldwide and can be considered an unproblematic typical condition in many countries. However, societies being mainly monolingual {i.e. in Germany) do not necessarily consider bilingualism as a positive and typical condition and concerns about possible negative interactions with language development in general, educational success or the development of intelligence are still common. Even more insecurity exists when it comes to growing up multilingual while language, hearing or cognitive disorders are present. The manuscript aims to describe the special condition of multilingual language development and its advantages and its possible risks. It also aims at changing still existing incorrect prejudices to- wards multilingual language situations.