Benefits of Bilingual Children.. are they better?
Benefits of Bilingual Children.. are they better?
Various studies have shown that incorporating language to a child at the early years, has a number of long term benefits to a childs development.
- Better multitaskers, problem solvers, and creative thinkers
- Better able to focus their attention and retain information
- Better emotionally and socially
- Better wired to expect and appreciate diversity
- Better appreciation of history and family heritage
Studies have shown that bilingual and multilingual children tend to be better multitaskers, problem solvers, and creative thinkers. They are better able to focus their attention and retain information. It makes sense when you consider all the brain-stretching that must happen to switch from language to language – there are a whole lot of neurons that must fire up to make communication happen!
Introducing languages at an early age also have enormous benefits emotionally and socially. When a child grows up learning and hearing multiple languages, they become wired to expect and appreciate diversity. They gain empathy for people who are different from themselves, for people who are not native speakers, for those who are from different places.
In a multicultural global world, many people choose to speak multiple languages at home in order to maintain a connection to the family’s heritage. This may be through grandparents, or in some cases parents even choose to relearn (or learn for the first time) the language of their parents or grandparents, along with their children. Bilingualism encourages the appreciation of history and family heritage, nurturing cross generational relationships to thrive!