What’s the health impact when kids from minority or indigenous-language-speaking families get care that is not in their native tongue? According to Harvard Medical School researcher Ann Miller (right), there’s an 11 percent difference between them and native speakers in key early childhood development measures.

So what’s going on here? The trouble isn’t that speaking an Indigenous or minority language is the cause of developmental delays, Miller argues. The real reason is discrimination and lack of equitable access to health care and education for children and families in their home languages.

“The gold standard of health care, education, and child development services,” she says, “should be to deliver care in the language of the people you’re serving.”

Read more about Miller’s study here.