Bilingualism
Thanks to the extreme plasticity of their brain, children can derive various benefits for cognitive development from early bilingualism, especially with respect to cognitive development and their abilities.
Being born into a bilingual family or attending a bilingual nursery involves a series of advantages, especially on a cognitive level, including greater learning ability, communication and greater attention control.
This happens because bilingualism continuously stimulates the central executive system, which is a bit like the command center of the brain as it is responsible for:
planning behavior and essential projects for dealing with new situations;
plan, manage and organize time;
manipulate information in order to complete a specific task;
stay focused and solve problems;
train working memory, that is, that part of memory that allows us to keep information in mind while we process it.
All extremely important functions not only for learning, also in the future for entering school, but also for everyday life.
So why not train them, exactly as you would with sport to train the body?
Early bilingualism is related to a lower or delayed incidence of senile dementia, i.e. early bilingualism has advantages from a cognitive point of view that last throughout life.
Emotional benefits
When we talk about the executive functions of the brain, we are also referring to that type of control and self-control that is essential for learning to regulate and manage emotional experiences.
By learning to control and control oneself, the left hemisphere of the brain develops, the so-called rational brain, slowly becoming equal in anatomical size and development to the right hemisphere, the so-called emotional brain, which is that part of the brain that reacts in also impulsive and unaware of emotional stimuli.
Bilingual children appear to strengthen their ability to choose and self-control, managing to better manage strong and intense emotions of fear, anger and sadness, which could otherwise be pervasive and overwhelming.
The brain of children exposed to bilingualism develops following two different linguistic channels, that of the mother tongue and that of the second language, and is therefore more flexible, benefiting children in terms of greater openness towards novelties and the ability to pay more attention to differences .
Social benefits
And let's not forget the social benefits: bilinguals understand the concept of cultural and linguistic diversity very easily, being familiar with the different ways of classifying the world of languages they speak.
This makes them good problem solvers and makes them able to easily adapt to different social contexts.
The ability to communicate and work in a group also seems to be greater in bilinguals than in monolinguals, as does the ability to resolve conflicts, all thanks to that greater emotional familiarity and greater flexibility, which can be strengthened with bilingualism.
It sometimes happens, that children learning two or more languages simultaneously appear to go through a period of confusion and delay in language development.
This is possible because the two linguistic systems compete to use many of the mental resources.
In reality, the child's brain is only becoming more plastic, more flexible, it is learning to jump from one language to another, from one system to another, immediately, and to "silence" one language while using the other.
It is possible that a slight cognitive overload may be created at the beginning, but this will soon be resolved, leaving room for the advantages and their sedimentation.
Learning the mother tongue should be around two years old, but in the case of bilinguals it can take a few months or even more.
Another aspect not to worry about is a certain difficulty in selecting words: a bilingual will have to scan the mental vocabularies of the two languages in order to choose a word, and this will always lead to a delay compared to a monolingual and a smaller initial vocabulary.
Don't worry, everything is normal for the reasons mentioned above.
Learning a second language does not mean forgetting the first or learning it worse, but training the brain to use two linguistic systems.
Useful tips to help children
The important thing is that the use of another language always takes place in a specific context, such as kindergarten, and to pay attention to mixing, that is, in the case of bilingual parents, speaking with their children by mixing the various languages.
You must always use one at a time, so it is a good idea to decide on a familiar language to use at home, without creating confusion with a parent who speaks a different language from the other, reserving that choice as a second language for specific activities such as kindergarten, a specific language course or dedicated activities.
Cartoons are not particularly effective in learning the second language, unless they are accompanied by a comment or sharing with an adult.
Consider that some research has shown that some American children under 2 years old, in interaction with a person who spoke to them in Chinese for an hour, five days a week, were able to learn the language, a result which was however totally absent if during the interaction an hour of television was replaced.
TV and radio in foreign languages do not promote learning in very young children, who need an emotional relationship to learn, because they are rich in an emotional component that cannot be transmitted through technology.
The genuineness of gestures, voice intonation, glances and physical contact, what we could call non-verbal communication, are fundamental aspects for learning a language and cannot be conveyed authentically by television.
At an early age it is not the word that is important, but the emotional characteristics of communication.
Sources:
Bilinguismo precoce: sì o no?
10 benefits of bilingualism, according to science
10 Benefits of Being Bilingual
I vantaggi del bilinguismo per i bambini secondo la scienza
Do you want to work for the Polo Sud?
Send us your application and tell us what you think about bilingualism.
Being born into a bilingual family or attending a bilingual nursery involves a series of advantages, especially on a cognitive level, including greater learning ability, communication and greater attention control.
This happens because bilingualism continuously stimulates the central executive system, which is a bit like the command center of the brain as it is responsible for:
planning behavior and essential projects for dealing with new situations;
plan, manage and organize time;
manipulate information in order to complete a specific task;
stay focused and solve problems;
train working memory, that is, that part of memory that allows us to keep information in mind while we process it.
All extremely important functions not only for learning, also in the future for entering school, but also for everyday life.
So why not train them, exactly as you would with sport to train the body?
Early bilingualism is related to a lower or delayed incidence of senile dementia, i.e. early bilingualism has advantages from a cognitive point of view that last throughout life.
Emotional benefits
When we talk about the executive functions of the brain, we are also referring to that type of control and self-control that is essential for learning to regulate and manage emotional experiences.
By learning to control and control oneself, the left hemisphere of the brain develops, the so-called rational brain, slowly becoming equal in anatomical size and development to the right hemisphere, the so-called emotional brain, which is that part of the brain that reacts in also impulsive and unaware of emotional stimuli.
Bilingual children appear to strengthen their ability to choose and self-control, managing to better manage strong and intense emotions of fear, anger and sadness, which could otherwise be pervasive and overwhelming.
The brain of children exposed to bilingualism develops following two different linguistic channels, that of the mother tongue and that of the second language, and is therefore more flexible, benefiting children in terms of greater openness towards novelties and the ability to pay more attention to differences .
Social benefits
And let's not forget the social benefits: bilinguals understand the concept of cultural and linguistic diversity very easily, being familiar with the different ways of classifying the world of languages they speak.
This makes them good problem solvers and makes them able to easily adapt to different social contexts.
The ability to communicate and work in a group also seems to be greater in bilinguals than in monolinguals, as does the ability to resolve conflicts, all thanks to that greater emotional familiarity and greater flexibility, which can be strengthened with bilingualism.
It sometimes happens, that children learning two or more languages simultaneously appear to go through a period of confusion and delay in language development.
This is possible because the two linguistic systems compete to use many of the mental resources.
In reality, the child's brain is only becoming more plastic, more flexible, it is learning to jump from one language to another, from one system to another, immediately, and to "silence" one language while using the other.
It is possible that a slight cognitive overload may be created at the beginning, but this will soon be resolved, leaving room for the advantages and their sedimentation.
Learning the mother tongue should be around two years old, but in the case of bilinguals it can take a few months or even more.
Another aspect not to worry about is a certain difficulty in selecting words: a bilingual will have to scan the mental vocabularies of the two languages in order to choose a word, and this will always lead to a delay compared to a monolingual and a smaller initial vocabulary.
Don't worry, everything is normal for the reasons mentioned above.
Learning a second language does not mean forgetting the first or learning it worse, but training the brain to use two linguistic systems.
Useful tips to help children
The important thing is that the use of another language always takes place in a specific context, such as kindergarten, and to pay attention to mixing, that is, in the case of bilingual parents, speaking with their children by mixing the various languages.
You must always use one at a time, so it is a good idea to decide on a familiar language to use at home, without creating confusion with a parent who speaks a different language from the other, reserving that choice as a second language for specific activities such as kindergarten, a specific language course or dedicated activities.
Cartoons are not particularly effective in learning the second language, unless they are accompanied by a comment or sharing with an adult.
Consider that some research has shown that some American children under 2 years old, in interaction with a person who spoke to them in Chinese for an hour, five days a week, were able to learn the language, a result which was however totally absent if during the interaction an hour of television was replaced.
TV and radio in foreign languages do not promote learning in very young children, who need an emotional relationship to learn, because they are rich in an emotional component that cannot be transmitted through technology.
The genuineness of gestures, voice intonation, glances and physical contact, what we could call non-verbal communication, are fundamental aspects for learning a language and cannot be conveyed authentically by television.
At an early age it is not the word that is important, but the emotional characteristics of communication.
Sources:
Bilinguismo precoce: sì o no?
10 benefits of bilingualism, according to science
10 Benefits of Being Bilingual
I vantaggi del bilinguismo per i bambini secondo la scienza
Do you want to work for the Polo Sud?
Send us your application and tell us what you think about bilingualism.
