Article About Bilingual Education

True bilingualism is a relatively rare and a beautiful thing, and by “true,” I mean speaking two languages with the proficiency of a native — something most of us will only dream of as we struggle with learning languages in school and beyond.

Highly competent bilingualism is probably more common in other countries, since many children growing up in the United States aren’t exposed to other languages. But the steps along the road toward bilingualism can help a child’s overall facility with language. And early exposure to more than one language can confer certain advantages, especially in terms of facility with forming the sounds in that language.

But parents should not assume that young children’s natural language abilities will lead to true grown-up language skills without a good deal of effort. Erika Hoff, a developmental psychologist who is a professor at Florida Atlantic University and the lead author of a 2015 review article on bilingual development, said: “For everybody trying to raise a bilingual child, whatever your background and reason, it’s very important to realize that acquiring a language requires massive exposure to that language.”

Pediatricians routinely advise parents to talk as much as possible to their young children, to read to them and sing to them. Part of the point is to increase their language exposure, a major concern even for children growing up with only one language. And in order to foster language development, the exposure has to be person-to-person; screen time doesn’t count for learning language in young children — even one language — though kids can learn content and vocabulary from educational screen time later on. “For bilingual development, the child will need exposure to both languages,” Dr. Hoff said, “and that’s really difficult in a monolingual environment, which is what the U.S. is.”

Pediatricians advise non-English-speaking parents to read aloud and sing and tell stories and speak with their children in their native languages, so the children get that rich and complex language exposure, along with sophisticated content and information, rather than the more limited exposure you get from someone speaking a language in which the speaker is not entirely comfortable.

Parents come up with all kinds of strategies to try to promote this kind of exposure. Some families decide that each parent will speak a different language to the child. But the child will be able to sort out the two languages even if both parents speak them both, Dr. Hoff said. “There is certainly no research to suggest that children need to have languages lined up with speakers or they get confused.” On the other hand, that rule could be a way of making sure that the non-English language is used.

If a child grows up with caretakers who speak a foreign language — perhaps a Chinese au pair or a French nanny — the child may see some benefits down the road in studying that language. But if a child grows up speaking that second language — Korean, say — with cousins and grandparents, attending a “Saturday School” that emphasizes the language and the culture, listening to music and even reading books in that language, and visits Korea along the way, that child will end up with a much stronger sense of the language.

It does take longer to acquire two languages than one, Dr. Hoff said, and that, again, comes back to the exposure.

“A child who is learning two languages will have a smaller vocabulary in each than a child who is only learning one; there are only so many hours in the day, and you’re either hearing English or Spanish,” Dr. Hoff said. The children will be fine, though, she said. They may mix the languages, but that doesn’t indicate confusion. “Adult bilinguals mix their languages all the time; it’s a sign of language ability,” she said.

Dr. Hoff works in South Florida, where there is a very educated and affluent population raising children in Spanish and English. “The children start out as baby bilinguals, but the older they get, the more English overtakes Spanish,” she said. “The ones who are successful bilinguals as adults are still much better in English than they are in Spanish — they didn’t go to school in Spanish, they don’t read books in Spanish, and when you actually measure the size of their vocabularies, or the grammar they understand, or the coherence of the narrative they produce, they are not as proficient as they are in English.”

Gigliana Melzi, a developmental psychologist and associate professor of applied psychology at New York University who studies language in Spanish- and English-speaking Latino families, agreed. “Parents will need to be mindful about introducing the child to literacy in that language,” she said. “They will need to be thoughtful about ways they will encourage the child to maintain the language.”

It’s also important, she said, to watch the individual child and make sure the child is not overloaded with demands because of parental expectations and ambitions; maybe three languages on top of a musical instrument and a serious sport is just too much.

The languages you learn as a child are important, but so are the languages you learn later in life. “We all know people who make great contributions and do great science in English and are not native speakers,” Dr. Hoff said. “The human brain is amazing, and the human capacity to acquire language is amazing.”

So what should parents do if they want to give their children a bilingual boost? “Find a native speaker and have that native speaker have fun, interesting conversations with your child, and your child will learn something,” Dr. Hoff said. “Don’t expect it will turn your child into a perfect balanced bilingual, but that’s O.K.” Whatever you do is an advantage.

Dr. Melzi said that often, a child who has been fluent in two languages in the preschool years goes to school where English is spoken, and starts using English to describe what happens there.

“There is a push worldwide where English becomes like the lingua franca, so it’s important that the child be exposed to the other language early, and the younger you are, the more nativelike you’re going to sound,” she said. On the other hand, older children may learn more easily: “The younger you are, the more head start you have,” she said. “The older you are, the more efficient learner you are, you have a first language you can use as a bootstrap.”

So true bilingualism may be rare, but parents shouldn’t be discouraged on that account, since all the skills that children acquire along the way are very valuable, Dr. Melzi said. “It’s worth it, but it’s a lot of work.”

“the best approach to raising bilingual children is to start early.”

“"The earlier the better. Studies have shown that children exposed to more than one language have greater tissue density in the areas of the brain related to language, memory and attention. The effect is particularly strong when the additional language is introduced before age 5."

"As long as children hear two distinct languages being spoken at different times, they would not get the languages confused," Namy said. "They may occasionally substitute a word from one language into a sentence in the other language simply because they haven't acquired the full vocabulary in both languages yet, but this doesn't imply that they don't understand which words belong in which languages."

“A word of advice from Namy to all parents attempting to raise bilingual children is to "stick to it and don't worry." Their children may one day say "thank you" -- and "gracias" -- for raising them to be bilingual.”

(CNN) In a playground in Paris, 3-year-old Raphael Jegouzo excitedly tells a little girl, "Me too, I speak French!" Like many other children his age, he learned to speak French at home -- except his home is Brooklyn, New York.

"My husband's family couldn't believe he spoke French as if he were living in France," Raphael's mother, Raquel Jegouzo, said. At home, Raquel speaks to Raphael in English and French. His father, Erwan Jegouzo, a native French speaker, speaks to Raphael exclusively in French.

The Jegouzos might be doing something right. According to Emory University psychology professor Laura L. Namy, the best approach to raising bilingual children is to start early. "The child should hear as much of both languages as possible from birth, ideally from two different speakers who consistently speak one of the languages to them," Namy said.

Pediatrician Dr. Gwendolyn Delaney agrees. "The earlier the better. Studies have shown that children exposed to more than one language have greater tissue density in the areas of the brain related to language, memory and attention. The effect is particularly strong when the additional language is introduced before age 5."

Are there downsides of bilingualism for kids?

Delaney and Namy said the most common worry they see in parents who want to raise bilingual children is that exposing children to multiple languages early on might confuse the child. They both said this should not be a concern. According to Namy, children begin to learn the sounds of their mothers' native languages while they are in the womb, and they can tell the difference between that language and other languages from birth.

"As long as children hear two distinct languages being spoken at different times, they would not get the languages confused," Namy said. "They may occasionally substitute a word from one language into a sentence in the other language simply because they haven't acquired the full vocabulary in both languages yet, but this doesn't imply that they don't understand which words belong in which languages."

The notion that their child could lag behind in speech might stem from parents comparing the speed at which their child is reaching language milestones -- which has nothing to do with how many languages they are learning. "Language acquisition isn't a race. All typically developing kids get there in the end, and there's a lot of normal variability," Namy said.

Children are more versatile than parents might think.

The Ramos family lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the parents speak to their children in Spanish at home. They are surrounded by friends who speak English, Spanish or both. Jismarie Ramos said her son, who just turned 4, learned by himself to identify people who speak a specific language and engage in a conversation in that language. "If you talk to him in Spanish, he will reply in Spanish without me telling him to. If you say 'hello' instead of 'hola,' he knows right away to engage in a conversation in English," Ramos said.

Barriers to bilingualism

The benefits of bilingualism are a no-brainer to some parents. Known advantages include cognitive benefits and being competitive in a global market as adults. A study published last year in the journal Psychological Science found bilingual children have an advantage when it comes to social abilities and communication skills. However, for other parents, the benefits of bilingualism are not so cut and dried.

Delaney has patients who have expressed concerns about teaching children their native language for fear that they'd have a harder time assimilating to American culture. A lot of them worry their children might get teased by their peers because they speak another language or have an accent.

"I encourage parents not to let the fear of being identified as a first-generation American family keep them from giving such an important head start to their child," Delaney said.

Other parents who are set on raising their children to be bilingual might encounter some resistance from the child. Such is the case for the Dennis family. The parents speak Spanish to their three children in Cumming, Georgia. When Elizabeth Dennis spoke to her 11-year-old daughter, Mariana, in Spanish in front of her friends, she was taken aback by her daughter's response. "Don't speak to me in Spanish," Mariana said. Elizabeth recognizes that her daughter probably felt embarrassed, but that didn't stop Elizabeth. She responded, "I will speak to you in Spanish," letting her daughter know this was not up for discussion.

For other families the issue may not be the children, but the parents. "The biggest challenge for some parents is remembering to speak to their children in the second language," Namy said. "For some parents it takes some real cognitive effort to remember to do so consistently," she added.

Parents who are sold on the benefits of bilingualism and want to raise their children to be bilingual, but are monolingual themselves, might also find it difficult to do so. One option is to hire a bilingual nanny and ask that the nanny only speak to the child in a particular language. Another option is to hire a tutor or search for a local "mommy and me" language class. This could be an opportunity for the parents to learn a new language along with their child. For parents who can't afford a nanny or a tutor, they might consider enrolling their child in a charter multilingual school.

A word of advice from Namy to all parents attempting to raise bilingual children is to "stick to it and don't worry." Their children may one day say "thank you" -- and "gracias" -- for raising them to be bilingual.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to deny the fact that you're living in a global world. From the products you buy and entertainment you consume to the connectivity social media provides and the ease with which you can explore new things on the internet, there's never been a better time to broaden your linguistic horizons. If you're a parent, you might be wondering about the benefits to raising a bilingual child. Is it more effort than it's worth? One recent study would seem to imply that learning a second language is a smart choice.

According to CNN, 66 percent of the of the world's children are raised as bilingual speakers. So it seems like your child would be in good company if they were able to pick up another language in addition to their native tongue. Not to mention, it's never been easier or more efficient for your child to explore the world of communication. For example, there are plenty of educational apps to teach your child a second language, and most of them are free.

So if you're still on the fence as to whether or not there are solid reasons for your little one to learn more about linguistics, then check out these top benefits to raising a bilingual child to help you make an informed decision.

1. They'll Have A Better Foundation For Learning
Apparently, when it comes to learning a second language, the sooner the better. According to the Multilingual Children's Association (MCA), it's easier to learn another language from birth than any other time in life. That's not to say that if your child is in grade school that their window of opportunity has closed. As MCA further noted, it's never too late to learn another language, but the younger they start, the better foundation they will have for continuing their language studies as they grow older.

2. They'll Gain New Perspectives
Perhaps one of the biggest perks of raising a bilingual child is that they'll grow up with the ability to see and process information from various angles. As the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) noted, bilingual children have been shown to have more flexible thinking. That is to say they don't have difficulty adapting to or learning new information in a variety of ways.

3. Math Is Easier For Them
You might not think that words and numbers have much in common, but you'd be misinformed. As reported by the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC), "bilingual children have an easier time understanding math concepts and solving word problems." One possible reason for this, ECLKC noted, is that the cognitive capacity needed to learn another language complement the skill set required to process complex logic, like mathematics. .

4. Their Retention & Attention Skills Increase
Even a simple function like speaking requires so many different parts of the brain to interact. So it's no surprise that learning a second language can impact different cerebral regions. In an interview with CNN, pediatrician Dr. Gwendolyn Delaney said, "children exposed to more than one language have greater tissue density in the areas of the brain related to language, memory, and attention." Though this isn't a guarantee that your child will be a mini Sherlock Holmes, it's definitely a nice benefit.

5. They'll Have A Better Foundation For Learning
It may be weird to think about your child being a senior citizen one day, but it'll happen. As it turns out, raising a bilingual child now could help them in ways you wouldn't even expect, decades from now. As psychologist and professor of cognitive and linguistic studies Dr. Ellen Bialystok told The New Yorker, "when the brain keeps learning, as it seems to do for language, it has more capacity to keep functioning at a higher level." This sounds good on paper, but what does that look like in real life? Bialystok continued that those, "who speak multiple languages seem to resist the effects of dementia far better than monolinguals do." Again, it's not a promise, but any chance you have to improve your child's life is worth taking.

6. They'll Have A Better Foundation For Learning
The National Center for Biotechnology Information recently reported that, "the need to manage two, jointly-activated languages leads to an enhancement of frontal-posterior attention control mechanisms with other types of cognitive control also enhanced, such as inhibitory control." In layman's terms, being bilingual means you have a better sense of control because science.

7. They'll Have A Better Foundation For Learning
This benefit actually makes a lot of sense since learning and maintaining a second language requires a bit of mental multi-tasking. According to The Economist, "bilingual children outperform monolinguals at tasks requiring 'executive function': prioritizing and planning complex tasks and switching mental gears." Being able to adapt quickly is definitely a benefit that can serve your child well throughout their life.

8. They'll Have A Better Foundation For Learning
Perhaps it's because raising a bilingual child means you're introducing them to a variety of cultures, but regardless of the reason why, it seems that learning another language leads to more imagination and innovation. According to Kids Health, an educational site from Nemours, "kids exposed to several languages are more creative." Who knows? You might just have a future bilingual artist on your hands.

9. They'll Have A Better Foundation For Learning
Simply learning something is good, but being able to process information quickly and efficiently is even better. Dr. Viorica Marian, a professor of Cognitive Science at Northwestern University, told The Dana Foundation that, "the neurological benefits of bilingualism extend from early childhood to old age as the brain more efficiently processes information." The fact that this benefit essentially covers an entire lifespan is astonishing in and of itself.

10. They'll Have A Better Foundation For Learning
This might seem like a no-brainer, but according to the ECLKC, bilingual children are shown to be more accepting and appreciative of different cultures. That totally makes sense because if a child is going to learn a new language, it's not going to take place in a vacuum—they'll be absorbing information about various customs, traditions, and lifestyles in a positive way. After all, doesn't the world need a little more appreciation?

11. Their Career Opportunities Expand
Who knows what the workplace will look like by the time your child is old enough to become a contributing member of society. Yet it's a pretty safe bet that being bilingual won't hurt their chance of succeeding. As MCA noted, "career prospects are multiplied for people who know more than one language." Working in the fields of childcare, hospitality, education, technology, public relations, and more are all enhanced if your child can demonstrate a fluency in multiple languages.

BEING bilingual has some obvious advantages. Learning more than one language enables new conversations and new experiences. But in recent years, psychology researchers have demonstrated some less obvious advantages of bilingualism, too. For instance, bilingual children may enjoy certain cognitive benefits, such as improved executive function — which is critical for problem solving and other mentally demanding activities.

Now, two new studies demonstrate that multilingual exposure improves not only children’s cognitive skills but also their social abilities.

One study from my developmental psychology lab — conducted in collaboration with the psychologists Boaz Keysar, Zoe Liberman and Samantha Fan at the University of Chicago, and published last year in the journal Psychological Science — shows that multilingual children can be better at communication than monolingual children.

We took a group of children in the United States, ages 4 to 6, from different linguistic backgrounds, and presented them with a situation in which they had to consider someone else’s perspective to understand her meaning. For example, an adult said to the child: “Ooh, a small car! Can you move the small car for me?” Children could see three cars — small, medium and large — but were in position to observe that the adult could not see the smallest car. Since the adult could see only the medium and large cars, when she said “small” car, she must be referring to the child’s “medium.”

We found that bilingual children were better than monolingual children at this task. If you think about it, this makes intuitive sense. Interpreting someone’s utterance often requires attending not just to its content, but also to the surrounding context. What does a speaker know or not know? What did she intend to convey? Children in multilingual environments have social experiences that provide routine practice in considering the perspectives of others: They have to think about who speaks which language to whom, who understands which content, and the times and places in which different languages are spoken.

Interestingly, we also found that children who were effectively monolingual yet regularly exposed to another language — for example, those who had grandparents who spoke another language — were just as talented as the bilingual children at this task. It seems that being raised in an environment in which multiple languages are spoken, rather than being bilingual per se, is the driving factor.

You might wonder whether our findings could be explained as just another instance of the greater cognitive skills that bilingual children have been observed to have. We wondered that, too. So we gave all the children a standard cognitive test of executive function. We found that bilingual children performed better than monolingual children, but that the kids who were effectively monolingual yet regularly exposed to another language did not. These “exposure” children performed like monolinguals on the cognitive task, but like bilinguals on the communication task. Something other than cognitive skills — something more “social” — must explain their facility in adopting another’s perspective.

We found that babies in monolingual environments reached equally often for the two bananas. Babies in multilingual environments, including those who were exposed to a second language only minimally, already understood the importance of adopting another’s perspective for communication: They reached more often for the banana that the adult could see.

Multilingual exposure, it seems, facilitates the basic skills of interpersonal understanding. Of course, becoming fully bilingual or multilingual is not always easy or possible for everyone. But the social advantage we have identified appears to emerge from merely being raised in an environment in which multiple languages are experienced, not from being bilingual per se. This is potentially good news for parents who are not bilingual themselves, yet who want their children to enjoy some of the benefits of multilingualism.

“Science indicates that babies’ brains are the best learning machines ever created, and that infants’ learning is time-sensitive. Their brains will never be better at learning a second language than they are between 0 and 3 years of age,” said co-author Patricia Kuhl, co-director of I-LABS and a UW professor of speech and hearing sciences.

“Parents in Madrid, in the United States and around the world are eager to provide their children with an opportunity to learn a foreign language early. The U.S. census shows that 27 percent of America’s children under the age of 6 are now learning a language other than English at home. While these children are fully capable of learning both their parents’ language and English, they often do not have adequate exposure to English prior to kindergarten entry and as a result, often lag behind their peers once they enter school,” she said.

Study Shows How Exposure To A Foreign Language Ignites Infants' Learning For years, scientists and parents alike have touted the benefits of introducing babies to two languages: Bilingual experience has been shown to improve cognitive abilities, especially problem-solving.

And for infants raised in households where two languages are spoken, that bilingual learning happens almost effortlessly. But how can babies in monolingual households develop such skills?

“As researchers studying early language development, we often hear from parents who are eager to provide their child with an opportunity to learn another language, but can’t afford a nanny from a foreign country and don’t speak a foreign language themselves,” said Naja Ferjan Ramirez, a research scientist at the University of Washington Institute of Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS).

A new study by I-LABS researchers, published July 17 in Mind, Brain, and Education, is among the first to investigate how babies can learn a second language outside of the home. The researchers sought to answer a fundamental question: Can babies be taught a second language if they don’t get foreign language exposure at home, and if so, what kind of foreign language exposure, and how much, is needed to spark that learning?

The researchers took their query all the way to Europe, developing a play-based, intensive, English-language method and curriculum and implementing it in four public infant-education centers in Madrid, Spain. Sixteen UW undergraduates and recent graduates served as tutors for the study, undergoing two weeks of training at I-LABS to learn the teaching method and curriculum before traveling to Spain. The country’s extensive public education system enabled the researchers to enroll 280 infants and children from families of varying income levels.

Based on years of I-LABS research on infant brain and language development, the method emphasizes social interaction, play, and high quality and quantity of language from the teachers. The approach uses “infant-directed speech” — often called “parentese” — the speech style parents use to talk to their babies, which has simpler grammar, higher and exaggerated pitch, and drawn-out vowels.

“Our research shows that parentese helps babies learn language,” Ferjan Ramirez said.

Babies aged 7 to 33.5 months were given one hour of English sessions a day for 18 weeks, while a control group received the Madrid schools’ standard bilingual program. Both groups of children were tested in Spanish and English at the start and end of the 18 weeks. The children also wore special vests outfitted with lightweight recorders that recorded their English learning. The recordings were analyzed to determine how many English words and phrases each child spoke.

The children who received the UW method showed rapid increases in English comprehension and production, and significantly outperformed the control group peers at all ages on all tests of English. By the end of the 18-week program, the children in the UW program produced an average of 74 English words or phrases per child, per hour; children in the control group produced 13 English words or phrases per child, per hour.

Ferjan Ramirez said the findings show that even babies from monolingual homes can develop bilingual abilities at this early age.

“With the right science-based approach that combines the features known to grow children’s language, it is possible to give very young children the opportunity to start learning a second language, with only one hour of play per day in an early education setting,” she said. “This has big implications for how we think about foreign-language learning.”

Follow-up testing 18 weeks later showed the children had retained what they learned. The English gains were similar between children attending the two schools serving predominantly low-income neighborhoods and the two serving mid-income areas, suggesting that wealth was not a significant factor in the infants’ ability to learn a foreign language. Children’s native language (Spanish) continued to grow as they were learning English, and was not negatively affected by introducing a second language.

“Science indicates that babies’ brains are the best learning machines ever created, and that infants’ learning is time-sensitive. Their brains will never be better at learning a second language than they are between 0 and 3 years of age,” said co-author Patricia Kuhl, co-director of I-LABS and a UW professor of speech and hearing sciences.

The results, Kuhl said, have the potential to transform how early language instruction is approached in the United States and worldwide:

“Parents in Madrid, in the United States and around the world are eager to provide their children with an opportunity to learn a foreign language early. The U.S. census shows that 27 percent of America’s children under the age of 6 are now learning a language other than English at home. While these children are fully capable of learning both their parents’ language and English, they often do not have adequate exposure to English prior to kindergarten entry and as a result, often lag behind their peers once they enter school,” she said.

“I-LABS’ new work shows we can create an early bilingual learning environment for dual-language learners in an educational setting, and in one hour per day, infants can ignite the learning of a second language earlier and much easier than we previously thought. This is doable for everybody,” Kuhl said.

For more information, contact Ferjan Ramirez at naja@uw.edu or 206-747-7850 and Kuhl at pkkuhl@uw.edu or 206-685-1921.

The study was supported by the Madrid Regional Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, and the UW I-LABS Ready Mind Project.

Editor’s Note: We’re resurfacing this story from the archives to show you how learning a second language can improve how you think.

SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.

They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.

Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins — one marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle.

In the first task, the children had to sort the shapes by color, placing blue circles in the bin marked with the blue square and red squares in the bin marked with the red circle. Both groups did this with comparable ease. Next, the children were asked to sort by shape, which was more challenging because it required placing the images in a bin marked with a conflicting color. The bilinguals were quicker at performing this task.

The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.

Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.”

The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. “Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often — you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain. “It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.” In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it.

The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).

In a 2009 study led by Agnes Kovacs of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, 7-month-old babies exposed to two languages from birth were compared with peers raised with one language. In an initial set of trials, the infants were presented with an audio cue and then shown a puppet on one side of a screen. Both infant groups learned to look at that side of the screen in anticipation of the puppet. But in a later set of trials, when the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen, the babies exposed to a bilingual environment quickly learned to switch their anticipatory gaze in the new direction while the other babies did not.

Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism — measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language — were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.

Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?

Correction: March 25, 2012 The Gray Matter column on bilingualism last Sunday misspelled the name of a university in Spain. It is Pompeu Fabra, not Pompea Fabra.

A Review for Teachers and Other Early Education Program Provide Talk, Read and Sing Together Every Day!

Cognitive Development Individuals who are bilingual and biliterate switch between two different language systems. Their brains are very active and flexible. Research also shows that, compared to their non-bilingual peers, bilingual people have an easier time: • understanding math concepts and solving word problems • developing strong thinking skills • using logic • focusing, remembering, and making decisions • thinking about language; and • learning other languages.

Social-Emotional Development Being bilingual supports children in maintaining strong ties with their family, culture, and community. All of these are key parts of a child’s developing identity. Bilingual children are also able to make new friends and create strong relationships using their second language—an important skill in our increasingly diverse society. Research has found that babies raised in bilingual households show better self-control, a key indicator of school success.

Learning School readiness and success for children who are dual or multi language learners is tied directly to mastery of their home language. Bilingual and multilingual children benefit academically from knowing more than one language in many ways. Because they are able to switch between languages, they develop more flexible approaches to thinking through problems. The ability to read and think in two(or more) different languages promotes higher levels of abstract thought, which is important in learning. Current research shows that people who use more than one language appear better at blocking out irrelevant information, a benefit that may exist as early as seven months of age. Children who learn to read in their home language have a strong foundation to build upon when they learn a second language. They can easily apply their knowledge about reading to their second language.

Long-Term Success One-half to two-thirds of adults around the world speak at least two languages. In today’s global society, they have many advantages. Globally, bilingual and biliterate adults have more job opportunities than monolingual adults. Bilingual and biliterate individuals have the opportunity to participate in the global community in more ways, get information from more places, and learn more about people from other cultures.

You can find more tips like these—as well as videos, information, and more—on Too Small to Fail’s website, www.talkingisteaching.org.

Track your child’s development using the Milestones Moments Booklet. If you have concerns about a child’s development, including their language development, talk to the child’s family about it. Ask them if they have concerns and if they observe the same issues at home. With their permission, conduct a developmental and behavioral screening and encourage them to talk to their primary care provider. For more information on developmental and behavioral screening, visit Birth to Five: Watch Me Thrive!

For more information on early learning, please visit Head Start’s National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning and the Early Head Start National Resource Center. For more information on working with young children who are learning more than one language, please visit Head Start’s National Center for Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness.

For more information on enhancing the language environment for children with developmental disabilities or delays, please visit the Center for Early Literacy Learning.

NOTES 1.Zelasko, N., & Antunez, B. (2000). If your child learns in two languages. National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. Retrieved from http://www.ncela.gwu. edu/files/uploads/9/IfYourChild LearnsInTwoLangs_English.pdf
2.Pandey, A. (2013) What is the role of home language learning and maintenance in supporting successful outcomes in English language learning and literacy? In Young Dual Language Learners: A Guide for PreK – 3 Leaders (2014). Editor Karen N. Nemeth. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.
3.Castro, D. C., Ayankoya, B., & Kasprzak, C. (2011). The new voices/Nuevas voces: Guide to cultural and linguistic diversity in early childhood. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
4.Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy, and cognition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
5.Castro, D. C., Ayankoya, B., & Kasprzak, C. (2011). The new voices/Nuevas voces: Guide to cultural and linguistic diversity in early childhood. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
6.Jessner, U. (2008). Teaching third languages: Findings, trends, and challenges. Université de Lausanne. doi:10.1017/S0261444807004739
7.Zelasko, N., & Antunez, B. (2000). If your child learns in two languages. National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. Retrieved from http://www.ncela.gwu. edu/files/uploads/9/IfYourChild LearnsInTwoLangs_English.pdf
8.Kovács, A. M., & Mehler, J. (2009). Cognitive gains in 7-month-old bilingual infants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(16), 6556–6560.
9.Zelasko, N., & Antunez, B. (2000). If your child learns in two languages. National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. Retrieved from http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/uploads/9/IfYourChild LearnsInTwoLangs_English.pdf 10.Diaz, R. (1985). The intellectual power of bilingualism. In Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, Second language learning by young children. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico.
11.Kovács, A. M., & Mehler, J. (2009). Cognitive gains in 7-month-old bilingual infants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(16), 6556–6560.
12.Páez, M. & Rinaldi, C. (2006). Predicting English word reading skills for Spanish-speaking students in first grade. Topics in Language Disorders, 26(4), 338–350.
13.Zelasko, N., & Antunez, B. (2000). If your child learns in two languages. National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. Retrieved from http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/uploads/9/IfYourChild LearnsInTwoLangs_English.pdf