How Early Can One Give a Baby Present

Whatever adult who has attempted to larn a foreign language can attest to how difficult and confusing information technology tin can be. So when a three-year-old growing up in a bilingual household inserts Spanish words into his English language sentences, conventional wisdom assumes that he is disruptive the two languages.

Inquiry shows that this is not the case.

In fact, early childhood is the best possible time to learn a second language. Children who feel 2 languages from nascence typically go native speakers of both, while adults often struggle with 2d language learning and rarely accomplish native-like fluency.

Merely the question remains: is it disruptive for babies to learn two languages simultaneously?

When do babies learn language?

Inquiry shows babies brainstorm to learn language sounds before they're even born. In the womb, a female parent's vocalization is 1 of the most prominent sounds an unborn baby hears. Past the fourth dimension they're born, newborns tin can not only tell the difference betwixt their female parent'southward language and another language, but besides prove a capability of distinguishing betwixt languages.

Language learning depends on the processing of sounds. All the world's languages put together incorporate almost 800 or so sounds. Each language uses only about 40 linguistic communication sounds, or "phonemes," which distinguish one language from another.

At nascence, the infant encephalon has an unusual gift: information technology tin can tell the divergence between all 800 sounds. This means that at this stage infants tin can learn whatsoever linguistic communication that they're exposed to. Gradually babies figure out which sounds they are hearing the most.

Babies learn to recognize their mother's voice even before they are built-in. John Mayer, CC Past

Betwixt half dozen and 12 months, infants who grow up in monolingual households become more specialized in the subset of sounds in their native language. In other words, they become "native linguistic communication specialists." And, past their first birthdays, monolingual infants begin to lose their ability to hear the differences betwixt foreign language sounds.

Studying baby brains

What nearly those babies who hear two languages from birth? Tin a baby brain specialize in two languages? If then, how is this process different then specializing in a single language?

Knowing how the babe encephalon learns one versus two languages is of import for understanding the developmental milestones in learning to speak. For example, parents of bilingual children often wonder what is and isn't typical or expected, or how their child will differ from those children who are learning a single language.

My collaborators and I recently studied the brain processing of language sounds in 11-month-old babies from monolingual (English only) and bilingual (Spanish-English) homes. We used a completely noninvasive technology called magnetoencephalography (MEG), which precisely pinpointed the timing and the location of activity in the brain as the babies listened to Spanish and English syllables.

Nosotros constitute some cardinal differences between infants raised in monolingual versus bilingual homes.

At 11 months of historic period, merely before most babies begin to say their offset words, the encephalon recordings revealed that:

• Babies from monolingual English language households are specialized to process the sounds of English, and not the sounds of Castilian, an unfamiliar linguistic communication

• Babies from bilingual Spanish-English households are specialized to process the sounds of both languages, Spanish and English.

Here'south a video summarizing our study.

Our findings show that babies' brains go tuned to whatever language or languages they hear from their caregivers. A monolingual encephalon becomes tuned to the sounds of one linguistic communication, and a bilingual brain becomes tuned to the sounds of two languages. By 11 months of age, the activity in the baby brain reflects the language or languages that they accept been exposed to.

Is it OK to learn two languages?

This has of import implications. Parents of monolingual and bilingual children alike are eager for their little ones to utter the starting time words. Information technology's an heady time to acquire more near what the infant is thinking. However, a common concern, specially for bilingual parents, is that their child is non learning fast enough.

Nosotros found that the bilingual babies showed an every bit potent brain response to English sounds as the monolingual babies. This suggests that bilingual babies were learning English at the same rate every bit the monolingual babies.

Parents of bilingual children also worry that their children will non know as many words as children who are raised with ane language.

Bilingualism does not crusade confusion. jakeliefer, CC BY

To some extent, this concern is valid. Bilingual infants split their time between two languages, and thus, on average, hear fewer words in each. However, studies consistently testify that bilingual children do not lag behind when both languages are considered.

Vocabulary sizes of bilingual children, when combined beyond both languages, have been establish to be equal to or greater than those of monolingual children.

Another common concern is that bilingualism causes confusion. Part of this business concern arises due to "code switching," a speaking behavior in which bilinguals combine both languages.

For example, my 4-year-old son, who speaks English, Castilian, and Slovene, goes as far equally using the Slovene endings on Spanish and English words. Inquiry shows bilingual children code-switch because bilingual adults around them practise too. Lawmaking-switching in bilingual adults and children is rule-governed, not haphazard.

Dissimilar monolingual children, bilingual children have another language from which they can easily borrow if they can't chop-chop retrieve the appropriate word in one linguistic communication. Even two-yr-olds attune their linguistic communication to friction match the language used by their interlocutor.

Researchers accept shown code switching to be role of a bilingual child'southward normal language evolution. And it could even exist the beginning of what gives them the actress cognitive prowess known as the "bilingual reward."

Bilingual kids are at an reward

The skillful news is young children all around the world tin and do acquire two languages simultaneously. In fact, in many parts of the world, existence bilingual is the norm rather than an exception.

It is at present understood that the abiding demand to shift attention between languages leads to several cognitive advantages. Research has found that bilingual adults and children testify an improved executive performance of the brain – that is, they are able to shift attention, switch between tasks and solve problems more easily. Bilinguals have also been institute to take increased metalinguistic skills (the power to think about language per se, and understand how it works). At that place is show that beingness bilingual makes the learning of a third language easier. Further, the accumulating consequence of dual language experience is thought to translate into protective effects against cognitive turn down with aging and the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

And so, if you lot want your child to know more than 1 language, information technology's best to kickoff at an early historic period, before she even starts speaking her first language. It won't confuse your child, and it could even give her a boost in other forms of knowledge.

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Source: https://theconversation.com/why-the-baby-brain-can-learn-two-languages-at-the-same-time-57470

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