Elma Blom studied Dutch language and linguistics at Utrecht University with a double specialization in Theoretical Linguistics and Sociolinguistics. Her doctoral dissertation on the early grammatical development of children was awarded with the AVT/AnéLA dissertation prize. She worked as a postdoc and Marie Curie fellow at the University of Amsterdam (2004-2007) and University of Alberta in Canada (2008-2011).

After her return to the Netherlands in 2012, she joined the Department of Development and Education of youth in Diverse Societies (DEEDS) at Utrecht University where she led the NWO Vidi project Cognitive Development in the Context of Emerging Bilingualism (CoDEmBi). Currently, she is project leader of the NWO Vici project Children and Language Mixing: developmental, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic aspects (CALM). The NWA-ORC project Multilingual voices in STEM education (Multi-STEM) started June 1 2021 under her leadership.

Elma Blom holds a chair in Language Development and Multilingualism in Family and Education. She is also affiliated with the UiT AcqVA Aurora Center for Language Acquisition, Variation & Attrition in Tromsø, Norway, and participates in the project Multilectal Literacy in Education (MultiLit).