The Buffering Potential of Bilingualism on Dementia: A Review
Communication, education, buying, selling, asking for directions, businesses transactions, etc, are all reasons why language is necessary. However, there could easily be a barrier between people that can impede on and dictate how these interactions will progress without the correct language. Bilingualism or multilingualism is a common asset that most of the people in the world use and rely on every day. Bilingualism will be described in this paper as the ability to speak two or more languages proficiently, however bilingualism and multilingualism will be used interchangeably. The second (or nth) language can be acquired at home at a young age (for example, if the parents/caregiver
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
The discovery of Uranus is quite interesting because it wasn’t something that people were expecting. The known planets at the time were Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Williams Herschel had a strong interest in astronomy. He was a firm believer that there was life out in the universe besides just on Earth. He was a very smart man who studied astronomy in unconventional ways. Other astronomers were interested in studying the positioning of stars and orbits. Herschel was searching for something. He went as far as building his own telescopes which turned out to be superior versions then what other astronomers used. He spent a lot of his nights looking through theses telescopes for signs of life out in space. This was
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
The benefits of using medical cannabis to manage such conditions as chronic pain or anxiety have been proven through years of effective testing. Even as Canada moves to legalize recreational marijuana at the federal level, however, there are still many questions surrounding medical marijuana. Many doctors still feel uncomfortable authorizing cannabis as a solution. But the largest question for new patients is often, “Where can I get medical marijuana?” which in the age of the internet becomes, “Should I buy medical cannabis online?”
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.
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.
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.
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
Bilingualism is a person’s ability to speak two or more languages fluently. Initially it was believed that bilingualism had negative effects on an individual’s intelligence and speech and it was thought that the knowledge of multiple languages would complicate one’s thought processing rather than improve its functioning. This theory
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.
There are more than 6500 language around the world. We cannot control or decide where we are going to be born or we cannot decide our mother language. But we can choose which language we are going to use as our second language. The existence of large numbers of people who speak more than one language but who do not exhibit native-like control in both languages raises the question of how proficient a person must be to be classed as bilingual. Bilingualism may be defined as having some ability to use two or even more languages. Being of bilingual has practical benefits in globalize world and it is not limited to having conversations with more people around. In 1922 the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, “The limits of my language mean
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
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.
Healthy aging has become an important field of research of the 21st century. Today, people aged 85 and older are the fastest growing demographics in the United States (Lock & Belza, 2017). Aging has been associated with decline in cognitive performance such as executive functioning, episodic memory, and attention (Memel, Bourassa, Woolverton, and Sbarra, 2016) as well decline in volume of such brain structures as grey and white matters (Sowell, Peterson, Thompson, Welcome, Henkenius & Toga, 2003). Therefore, it is important to understand mechanisms and processes that influence decline in cognitive abilities and brain structures with age to reduce its occurrence or at least to reduce the speed of its decline (Ska et al., 2009). It is hypothesized that bilingualism promotes healthy cognitive aging by enhancing the executive control functions, preserving grey matter volume, and contributing to the cognitive reserve that can delay the onset of dementia in older age.