Knowing how to speak a second language has many advantages, and many studies suggests that bilingual kids are smarter than others. In fact, there are some which even note the differences in how the brain develops with bilingual and monolingual kids.
According to a historical review in "The Journal of Genetic Psychology," various researchers held these beliefs, noting a "problem of bilingualism" or the "handicapping influence of bilingualism." Following studies reported that bilinguals performed worse in IQ tests and suffered in most aspects of language development ...
Bilingualism, or the ability to speak two or more languages, has been found to have a significant impact on academic achievement. Numerous studies have shown that bilingualism can improve cognitive skills, enhance problem-solving abilities, and increase academic performance in a variety of subjects.
7 Bilingual children are also able to make new friends and create strong relationships using their second language—an important skill in our increasingly diverse society. Research has found that babies raised in bilingual households show better self-control,8 a key indicator of school success.
Bilingual people show increased activation in the brain region associated with cognitive skills like attention and inhibition.
Summary: Researchers set out to examine what benefits bilingualism might have in the process of learning a third language. They found that students who know two languages have an easier time gaining command of a third language than students who are fluent in only one language.
The researchers found that bilinguals were able to learn both rules, but monolinguals learned only one of the rule patterns (AAB but not ABA). To summarize, the two studies have suggested that bilingual infants may be better able to control interference and switch between two rule structures.
Bilingual children may say their first words slightly later than monolingual children, but still within the normal age range (between 8-15 months) (11). And when bilingual children start to produce short sentences, they develop grammar along the same patterns and timelines as children learning one language (5).
The Disadvantages:
Children enjoying a bilingual environment run the risk of being isolated by the host society or of being teased by their peers when speaking in the foreign language. This teasing can have a detrimental effect on the self-esteem of the child.
FAQ: At What Age Do Bilingual Babies Talk? Like monolingual babies, typically developing bilingual babies will babble around 6 months, say their first words around 12 months, have a minimum of 15 words in their vocabulary by 18 months, and combine words together around 24 months.
The good news is young children all around the world can and do acquire two languages simultaneously. In fact, in many parts of the world, being bilingual is the norm rather than an exception. It is now understood that the constant need to shift attention between languages leads to several cognitive advantages.
A study conducted at the University of Granada and the University of York in Toronto, Canada, has revealed that bilingual children develop a better working memory -which holds, processes and updates information over short periods of time- than monolingual children.
As cited before there is a close link between intelligence and language acquisition. It seems that writing as a part of language learning has a positive correlation with intelligence. One of the best single measures of overall intelligence as measured by intelligence tests is vocabulary.
“When your brain processes language, it's not one place in the brain that processes language,” Marian says. “It's a network that's spread across all areas of the brain.” Because of that, bilingual brains have more pathways connecting different words, concepts and memories across different languages.
Researchers found that young adults who knew two languages performed better on attention tests and had better concentration compared to those who only spoke one language. They also respond faster or more accurately than their monolingual peers, according to Kapa and Colombo, 2013.
If you're a non-native speaker, teaching your child 2 or 3 new languages is absolutely possible (yes, really!) but you need to give them enough exposure to the native tongue too.
Learning two languages in childhood does not cause confusion or language delay. The idea that two languages causes language delays in children has been a long-standing myth in the United States. However, research has dispelled this myth.
The Second Year
At approximately 24 months, a bilingual child should be using two-word phrases (e.g. "dada work") and be understood by others approximately 50-75% of the time. A vocabulary ranging from 200-300 words (between all languages) is also expected.
In bilingual environments, the language that caregivers speak to their infant can sometimes differ from the language they use with others. For example, a bilingual infant might hear two languages in equal proportions in speech directed towards her, but hear only one of the languages in overheard speech.
Other studies have shown that bilingual children can complete mental puzzles quicker and more efficiently than those who only speak one language. The reason? Speaking two languages requires “executive functioning,” which are higher-level cognitive skills like planning, decision making, problem solving and organization.
Some children raised bilingual do take a little longer to start talking than those raised in monolingual households. The delay is temporary, however, and according to experts, it's not a general rule.
For example, relative to a bilingual, a trilingual has to remember even more words and has to inhibit even more languages. To adapt to this increase in cognitive demands, trilinguals may develop a larger cognitive supply (i.e., greater advantages) than bilinguals.
They found that bilinguals were significantly faster than monolinguals on tasks that required cognitive flexibility to combine simple arithmetic operations, which are typically embedded in mathematical problem solving.