There are more than 7,000 languages worldwide, and increasingly more connections to those languages. With so many connection opportunities, there is a greater need to understand multiple languages.
However, it’s not just understanding another language that is beneficial for children. Bilingualism has many benefits in early childhood education and brain development and should be presented in every household, even if the parents are not bilingual.
Higher Cognitive Flexibility
Bilingualism promotes cognitive flexibility, which is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, tasks, strategies, and concepts. This is because one minute a child might hear one language, and the next minute, the other language. This switching back and forth increases cognitive flexibility, and thereby improves cognitive development. A child with high cognitive flexibility will be more capable of adapting to academic and social changes and challenges.
Better Memory
Bilingual children have to remember twice the words as monolingual children, so they will naturally have a better memory. They can hold and process more memory than monolingual children, which will boost their academic success.
Better Attention and Inhibitory Control
Switching between languages keeps children on their toes. They have to be listening more attentively to track with conversation and instruction. Therefore, bilingual children are naturally more attentive to parents, teachers, and peers.
Inhibitory control is the ability to suppress or override impulses, be it thoughts or behaviors that would be inappropriate. Because bilingual children have to process language more carefully, this allows them to slow down and make a more calculated response to a provoking situation.
Better Language Skills
While this seems like a given, it’s worth noting that bilingual children have improved language skills in both the languages they know. Further, this applies to both reading and writing.
Bilingual children regularly outperform monolingual children because they are able to detect and distinguish differences in vocal sounds and recognize speech patterns. This improves their phonological awareness, pronunciation, and articulation of words, grammar and sentence structure, and vocabulary.
Better Future Job Opportunities
It pays to be bilingual–literally! Bilingual children will have greater job opportunities, and job opportunities with higher wages when they reach adulthood. Specifically, jobs that require fluency in Spanish, French, and Chinese, are in high demand.
When Should I Teach My Child Another Language?
Children are not born with language skills; these are acquired as they experience the world in relationship to language. Therefore, children as young as from birth can start learning a new language! This is partly why many baby toys come with multiple languages; early exposure is key to quick and easy language assimilation.
However, most children become interested and capable of communicating in other languages between ages 3-5.
How Can I Teach My Child Another Language?
If you want to teach your child another language so they can reap all the benefits of bilingualism, it’s easy to start today! If you are bilingual (even if you’re not proficient), start using bilingual language. You can start by naming objects, colors, or shapes, but speaking in full sentences is also beneficial for children to identify sentence structure.
If you don’t know another language, don’t let that stop you! Here are some ways to introduce bilingualism to your children:
- Bilingual Media: movies, music, books, and apps are all appropriate and helpful
- Songs and Rhymes: singing songs and rhymes in another language are just as fun for your child as they are in English.
- Schedule bilingual playdates: Find language playgroups in your area
- Games and Puzzles: Many language-based games and puzzles focus on vocabulary and pronunciation.
- Language tutor: someone who is fluent in the target language can provide regular, structured lessons to improve vocabulary and correct pronunciation.
- Bilingual Schools or Camps: schools can offer classes or camps for bilingual immersion
Bilingualism at Bright Start Louisville
At Bright Start Louisville, we strive to introduce basic words in other languages so our children can reap the benefits of knowing other languages. This will help them engage with peers from different cultures and will aid them in early childhood development. If you have any questions about our bilingual instruction, contact us today!