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Meet Weronika (Ronni) Ozpolat

Ronni is a Speech and Language Therapist. Working both privately and within the NHS, she specialises in bilingualism and runs the Multicultural Motherhood blog, writing about parenting, education, speech, language and bilingualism issues. In addition, Ronni runs online speech and language courses for parents, making her a highly valued member of our multilingual ambassador team.

Ronni’s grandparents were Polish and her parents, who were born in England, spoke Polish and English, but she and her siblings were raised monolingually in English. She met and married Sefer who is Kurdish and speaks four languages: Turkish, English and two Kurdish languages, Kurmanji and Zazaki. Ronni’s own regret over not being raised bilingually is part of her motivation to raise their four children to speak both English and Turkish, as well as increasing public awareness of the benefits of bilingualism.

Having always loved languages, Ronni studied French, German, Italian and Latin at school. After graduating in 2012, she went on to do post-graduate research on language and cognition in bilingual children with autism at the University of Reading.

When she became a mother, Ronni realised that a lot of parents worry about their children’s speech and language development. This is especially true in multilingual families where parents may have specific worries and are often given incorrect information about raising a multilingual child. For the last 8 years she has been working to bust these multilingualism myths, providing multilingual families with accurate and appropriate information, and making sure everyone understands that multilingualism is normal!

Ronni homeschools her four children, a decision based on many factors including increased time abroad, visiting family in Turkey. This immersion in Turkish culture and language naturally boosts the children’s language skills and confidence. When at home, she follows the Charlotte Mason philosophy of homeschooling which promotes short lessons, good literature and plenty of time outdoors.

Ronni’s Speech and Language one-to-one sessions

Once every three months, Ronni will hold a day of one-to-one appointments that are available to book by parents on the Estrellita all-star package who would like to discuss their children’s language development with a qualified and experienced speech and language therapist who specialises in bilingualism. Ronni will also be participating in live webinars and Q&A sessions.