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Those contextual cues that bilingual children noticed but that monolingual children missed facilitated their conversations with adults ¾ after all, the majority of our communications are non-verbal. Monitoring social situations often results in a better understanding of the context in which conversations take place, reveal details about interpersonal relations, and link places with conversation. They found that the monitoring skills that were benefiting the executive functions of bilingual children could also be given them an advantage in the social realm.
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Psychologists at the University of Chicago took to documenting the social skills of bilingualand monolingual children. It is not surprising that learning a new language boosts the number of people with whom you can converse, but the latest round of research confirms that bilingualism changes how you communicate with others. The benefits of bilingualism don’t stop at elevated cognitive function or protection from neurodegenerative diseases. Their evaluation of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals established a link between the age of onset and language capabilities with increased bilingualism came later ages of Alzheimer’s disease. Neuropsychologist at the University of California, San Diego have revealed a potential solution to this impending public health crisis with bilingualism. By 2025, it is projected that over 7.1 million Americans will suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.
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Alzheimer’s disease is an increasing issue for the developed world. If increased executive functions were not motivation enough to support bilingual childhood education, than consider the health benefits. But what gives bilingual children this edge above their monolingual classmates? While the mechanism underlying these results is not clear, researchers believe that bilingualism enhances a child’s attention to their surroundings and augments their experience in adapting to those changes. Comparatively, bilingual children often have more developed executive functions, that is, they are likely to excel at planning, problem solving and other mentally demanding tasks. Just as training regimens strengthen our muscles, repeatedly sorting out conflicts enhances the brain’s ability to process new material.Īs a result, bilingual children are often out performing their monolingual counterparts in a number of cognitive skills. What researchers failed to realize when they first studied the bilingual brain was the seemingly distracted brain, with multiple activated regions, was actually a brain in training. Over the last fifteen years, neuroscientists, psychologists, and educators have amassed a wealth of information demonstrating numerous advantages of growing up bilingual. At first, researchers interpreted this to be a handicap, but they were wrong. Initial brain imaging studies of bilingual individuals demonstrated that both language systems in the brain are active, even though only one system is in use.
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In spite of previous notions that learning a second language at an early age could actually be detrimental to a child’s cognitive abilities, recent psychology studies added to the growing body of evidence that being bilingual has a profound positive effect on the brain. If you are looking to give your child an academic boost, start with a second language. Not only will bilingual students be able to perform executive functions better, and likely for a prolonged period of neurological health, but they will also be more adept in conversation and social skills. The benefits of learning a second language are clear for early childhood education.