Raising Bilingual Children : How Do Bilingual Baby 's Brains Work And What Are Parents?

With successive bilingualism a child has the advantage of their first language as a base. They use this to both analyze and develop the second.  For example, the child knows that language is organized in a particular order.  The more mature a child is they also have a better vocabulary base, acoustic perception, and comprehension. Therefore they would make fewer errors in a second language.

What do we know about the effects bilingualism has on cognitive development? Our world is becoming progressively bilingual; in the US 21% of school age children between the ages of 5-17 years old can speak other than English at home and this number is expected to increase in the coming years. On top of social reasons, the positive effects to the cognitive development of the brain when introduced to a second language are of many. The age of acquisition is vital due to the plasticity of the brain, which according to the critical period hypothesis, begins to level after five years of age. In addition to plasticity, bilingual speakers are more capable of focusing their attention to solve complex problems compared to monolingual speakers.

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

Having the ability to speak more than one language influences one’ life deeply. Speaking two or more languages can affect someone from being infants to old age. Bhattacharjee continues with, “The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there

We learned in our text that the development of language is a complicated process that involves phonemes, morphemes, syntactic development among several other factors (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg & Saffran, 2014, p. 218). Proper and effective development of these language skills has been shown to have a critical learning period that enables successful fluency of a language; this period usually occurs between the ages of 5 and puberty (Siegler et al., 2014, p. 220). I believe that this critical period is the backbone of the argument against bilingual education. Proponents of this argument believe that the sooner a child is immersed in the new language, the better off they will be with regards to mechanics and use of that language.

Language is an important part of our lives. I remember when I arrived to USA I could speak a little English. I went to school to improve my language, reading and writing skills; even now I am learning my second language, without English I cannot survive in this new environment. Now I am raising my own kids and I want them to have this important skill, this privilege of knowing a second language, language of their parents and grandparents. By looking at studies of bilingual children, research shows how important it is for a child to learn a second language. Raising a bilingual child is a benefit because it improves social skills, academic proficiency, introduces child to a different culture, and prepares for the future.

It is easier for babies to become bilingual because when they hear two different languages their brains start to pick up sounds and vowels that each language makes. Babies become bilingual because they are born with the ability to distinguish different sounds in languages. Being bilingual strengthens their ability to distinguish different sounds. This makes their brain more flexible.

In the beginning I talked about wanting to understand how when newborns develop their cognitive learning development of two different languages as they got older for example attending a bilingual Preschool, would they be able to continue with their development of learning both English and Spanish and be able to grow and become experienced in both languages and be able to transition from their first language they may use at home and their second language they may use at school. Now that we got to take a look at two studies that wanted to know if children from low income families either attending a bilingual preschool or a stay at home, are able to grow in both English and Spanish language. In those two studies they had many things in common

she is not surprised to see a bilingually reared two-year-old who does not speak at

There has been substantial amount of empirical research done on bilingual infants in which researches have come up with the term “bilingual advantage.” Previous studies conducted have shown advantages associated with exposure within two languages (Singh et al., 2015; Brito & Barr, 2013). One study argues that visual habituation has been shown as the best predictor of later intelligence, and is the most basic experimental test of information in infancy. During

Language is the main form of communication for humans, who begin learning language from a young age. With such a diverse world, many people speak more than one language. However, is there a difference between the attention strategies and processing between monolingual and bilingual born speakers? How early do these differences appear? Research suggests bilingual infants express greater attention strategies and processing compared to monolingual infants. This paper will examine studies indicating that there are significant differences between the cognitive development of monolingual and bilingual infants.

Generally speaking, language development is never a static process; it is rather a process that is forever evolving. One can compare this to the physical development of a child, in the first three years the developments are incredibly rapid. There are a number of factors that possibly affect the speed of development of a bilingual child, they

Children acquire language since they were born. They communicate with their parents. Furthermore, children and parents interact with each other using a language that we often call the first language or mother tongue. At an early age, children are only learning one language that is the mother tongue. By age and speech development, children improve to acquire a second language from the school or the environment around them. In terms of speed of langgauge acquisition, children are factorized by both the child and the child’s learning environment. Therefore, it is important to understand how children acquire second language. This paper is provided

Children are incredible sensitive to the different ways of people speak. Even when they only hear they can understand the difference between the way men and women talking, difference between polite and impolite talk and so on. They don’t get confused when they hear two languages spoken around them. They follow patterns of learning. First language can influence how child use and learn his second language. Bilingual children often use words from one language when they speaking other language. This is called code switching. But this doesn’t mean they are confused about their languages or they are mixing them. Language mixing is a function of normal language learning behavior. It also observed in monolingual children. The former will sort itself out with time, the latter needs to be attended to by the bilingual speakers in the environment. Bilingual children are capable of focusing their attention on relevant information and ignore distractions. Also they have been shown to be more creative, better planning and solving complex problems than monolinguals. They develop a better understanding of language and how to communicate effectively. Also those bilingual children are more flexible in the way they think as a resulting of processing information through two different language systems. A foundation in primary education allows for strong development in literacy abilities when learning in later grades.

Researchers are continuously investigating methods of advancing human development. Many studies have explored the world of bilingualism and found a few surprising results. The skill of knowing two or more languages has been linked to a variety of cognitive benefits. Knowing more than one language has been proven to impact more than just the linguistic system of cognitive development. This essay will review the positive effects bilinguals experience through early and middle childhood along with adulthood. In addition, with a few of my personal believes and experiences.