How Multilingualism Can Impact Developing Brains
In my almost decade of practice as an educator, I’ve unfortunately heard the myth perpetuated that children should “only speak English at home and at school because other languages will confuse them”, especially pertaining to children with speech delay or an IEP/IFSP eligibility.
Children will not be “confused” by speaking one language at school and another at home. Their speech development may present differently than children who only speak one language, but remember that children in bilingual households are processing double the information. It isn’t true that bilingualism causes speech delay or confusion! In fact, there is a body of peer reviewed work supporting that bilingualism and multilingualism in young children actually expands their brain capabilities.
A few benefits of learning multiple languages as children:
Bilingual children have better executive functioning skills than their single language counterparts.
Children who grow up speaking more than one language have better vocabulary recall in childhood and adulthood.
Lifelong bilingual adults have more white matter in their frontal lobe than adults who were raised monolingual.
Bilingualism may actually prevent or prolong the onset of dementia.
A 2016 article from the Journal of Communication Disorders explored the deficits in research that need to be filled to have a better understanding of how multilingualism works with neurodivergent brains and traits categorized as disabilities. However, it does state that with what is known, “supporting both languages is important for children with developmental disabilities who need and use both languages in their everyday lives”. Disabled individuals often need to learn another language due to the circumstances of their support system or communication options.
Parents, if you speak a different language at home from the language spoken at school, please do not feel that you need to suppress your culture, customs, or words with your child. Who you are is important and should be embraced as much as you want it to be for your culture and family. Consider volunteering to read a book or lead some children’s songs in your native language for your child’s class! This might encourage other parents to share about their culture, too.
Citations:
Friesen, D. C., Luo, L., Luk, G., & Bialystok, E. (2015). Proficiency and control in verbal fluency performance across the lifespan for monolinguals and bilinguals. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience , 30 (3), 238-250.
Olsen, R. K., Pangelinan, M. M., Bogulski, C., Chakravarty, M. M., Luk, G., Grady, C., & Bialystok, E. (2015). The effect of lifelong bilingualism on regional grey and white matter volume. Brain Research , 1612, 128-139.
Kay-Raining Bird, Elizabeth, Genesee, Fred, & Verhoeven, Ludo. (2016). Bilingualism in children with developmental disorders: A narrative review. Journal of Communication Disorders, 63, 1-14.
