Bilingualism And Dementia

Being bilingual is a tool that can enhance someone’s life tremendously. The development of this tool can happen either simultaneously or successively.

In America, there is a predominant growth in multiple ethnicities and cultural backgrounds; leading to the usage of multiple languages in the American culture. There is a growing need for many people to learn and utilize multiple languages within the workplace and within one 's own personal life. The importance of bilingualism and the knowledge of multiple languages is ever increasing, and therefore becoming more important for the younger generations. The push for knowing multiple languages and becoming bilingual has many potential negative and positive effects.

Bilingualism is the ability to communicate in two different languages. Bilingual education is the use of two different languages in classroom instruction. According to the Encyclopedia of Children’s Health, and many other researchers, “languages are learned the easiest during a child’s youngest years. Therefore, when a child is growing up in a bilingual home or is receiving bilingual education, can easily speak both languages. Children who grow up in a household where two languages are spoken, usually acquire both languages simultaneously. Although their ability quality and skill of each language may be somewhat slower than a child that is

Although bilingual education has some merit, avoiding the implementation of the more popular language of a community is detrimental to the incorporation of mostly you people in society and hinders their ability to develop a keen sense of identity. For example, "language gets learned as it gets used (7).” In other words, one masters the language as he speaks it. Speaking and language skills tend to sharpen if they are used regularly. Rodriguez argues that learning both languages and using them rather than leaving one begins to lead to a better sense of identity and freedom. But according to Rodriguez it makes one become insecure, growing up

As parents, want to make sure we offer the best opportunities and knowledge available to our children. Considering the effects of today’s globalized and interconnected society, knowing and speaking more than one language represents extra opportunities. Additionally, more and more homes are made up of biracial and bicultural parents, which in many instances, includes bilingual or even trilingual environments for our children.

Bilingualism significantly reduces the barriers between people with different roots, interrupts fears and shame before confronting culturally different people. Bilingualism also opens opportunities to get to know different global issues, which is very helpful during travel or living in a place different culturally and linguistically as New York. In retrospect, despite the initial difficulties on the way to bilingualism, the participant considers that "bilingual persons have easier life" which she experienced to a large extent. Guided by this observation she made the steps so that her sons could be multilingual. Unfortunately, she only reached its goal in half. Her older son attended a Polish school learning the rules of grammar and spelling of the Polish language, therefore, he achieved fluency and the ability to write and read in Polish. The younger son found it difficult to assimilate the grammatical and phonetic rules of the Polish, which is in the head of the most arduous languages of the world. He did not want to attend additional classes, so he only gained fluency in speaking, which was the result of using only Polish at home to talk. Despite the obvious benefits of being bilingual, the participant did not want to force her son to do extra jobs, remembering her experiences along the way. Nevertheless, both boys also learn the basics of Spanish at school, which is currently the second most-used

There are approximately 6,500 different languages in the world, and knowing more than one may help a lot more than just communicating with others or getting a better job. Whether a person is bilingual, multilingual, or even a polyglot learning languages can have massive impacts on a person’s brain. People are always looking for ways to be smarter, have more focus, and perform better on tests. Languages might be the answer. Scientists have found that learning languages can offset Alzheimer’s and dementia, increase brain size and connectivity, and improve overall brain function.

They compared bilingualism in children with typical development and those with communication disorders. They emphasized that children become bilingual to a different degree; using different paths. For some, there is an exposure to a different language at a very early stage in life, and for some it only occurs once they are 3 years old, and enter the schools for education. In some cases when the home language is not supported in school, the child will have reduced opportunities to experiment the language thus becoming receptively bilingual, meaning they would understand their home language but lack in expressive skills in that language. However, Kohnert (2010) reports that continued support in the home language during preschool years is directly related to cognitive and academic gains in later age. While the research has ample advantages of a bilingual environment for typically developing kid but it changes when a kid has a developmental delay or communication disorder like autism. Most parents and professionals are still fearful of using more than one language with children who have significant communication problems. The authors elaborated that there is a significant scarcity in the literature comparing the performance of bilingual and monolingual children with communication disorders. However, they agreed to a growing body of research that maintains that bilingual children with disabilities can use their first language to acquire a second language if trained systematically. Authors maintain that children who are exposed to two languages may benefit to a great degree from a bilingual approach to intervention. (e.g., Kohnert, 2010, 2013). Finally on the serving needs of children who are bilingual and with a communication

Dementia is the loss of brain function it’s most likely to affect memory , thinking , language , and behavior. With certain caregivers they should feel comfortable because they can have a lot of frustrations during this time . According to “What Does Dementia Feel Like” it states “it's the feeling you get when things don't make sense or you don't know what you should be doing. If someone seems angry with you it can feel terrible remember that it's not your fault. They may not be able to control their emotions anymore.” Caregivers should always stay calm and repeat what was being said to make the patients feel more comfortable like you are on their side.

The United States of America (U.S.) is a nation built of immigrants. These immigrants brought many diverse languages to the U.S.. The major languages of the U.S. besides English consist of Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, French, Vietnamese, German, and Korean. Although Multilingualism or bilingualism is uncommon in the U.S., it is common in other countries. Multilingualism or bilingualism people appear to acquire knowledge faster and have superior executive functions (Diamond). This concept was discussed in class and proves that learning another language can be extremely beneficial. Spanish is a great second language to learn due to the fact that it is the nations second most used language in the U.S.. The importance of Spanish-speaking is

Many parents and teachers, now more than ever, are teaching children the importance of understanding and speaking more than one language. However, many children who speak more than one language have slight developmental delays in their syntax for both languages. However, the benefits of being bilingual far outweighs these very minor delays. There are many benefits to being bilingual. Recent studies done have even discovered that being bilingual may help protect our brains from developing diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Those of us who learned a second language during childhood have a better understanding for how language is structured and used, this understanding is called metalinguistic insight.

Finally, bilingualism offers a means of averting the natural decline of cognitive function and enhancing brain function during aging. This is due to keeping the cognitive mechanisms sharp and replacing damaged brain networks during aging. Researchers compared the brains of bilingual and monolingual patients with Alzheimer. The brains of “bilingual people showed a significantly higher degree of physical atrophy in regions commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease” (Marian and Shook, 2012, p. 1). This suggests that the use of two languages protects bilinguals from the symptoms of the disease. Bilingualism itself does not directly affect Alzheimer’s disease, but the use of two languages provides a level of cognitive reserve, which enables

Language is a key part of any family, community, culture and the human race. Without language the world today would be much different. From cavemen, to the Egyptian use of hieroglyphics, to Old English, to more than 6,500 languages spoken around the world today, the advances that humans have made in language is remarkable and inspiring. The ability to speak, read, write and understand more than one language is also remarkable and expands the liberties in life, especially for young people. High school students should be required to take at least two years of a foreign language class in order to graduate, as many recent studies support the benefits of doing so. Students who have learned a foreign language in high school have proven to have a

In today’s increasingly globalized world, the ability to speak a second or multiple languages provides a wide range of benefits. Since people who have foreign language skills surely spent much time not only in studying the language itself but also in engaging with its culture, they can see things from other different perspectives, not from a single perspective. The latest study actually shows that bilingual children are more capable of understanding others’ perspectives than those who speak only one language (Whyte, 2016). Moreover being multilingual can also prevent Alzheimer’s and other diseases that affect the brain. In the international business world, workers who can speak foreign languages have more flexibility to choose their jobs than monolingual workers. Foreign language skills allow people to communicate with each other and to negotiate more successfully. Foreign language skills also can be a useful tool to fill a gap between different cultures, which leads to the success in building a good business relationships.

Language is one of the valuable gifts which have been passed to children. The first language is significant and builds the basis for all later language progresses. Parents, family members and early childhood professionals have very important role on the development and maintenance of the first language. Studies shows that knowing one language can assist the child to comprehend how other languages work. First or home language is