Name: The sooner you expose a baby to a second language, the smarter they’ll be
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The sooner you expose a baby to a second language, the smarter they’ll be

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A new study shows that babies raised in bilingual environments develop core cognitive skills like decision-making and problem-solving — before they even speak.The study, out of the University of Washington, tested 16 babies. Half came from English-speaking households and half came from English- and Spanish-speaking households. The babies listen to a variety of speech sounds, from preverbal to English- and Spanish-specific sounds. Researchers monitored the babies’ responses to the sounds using magnetoencephalography (MEG), which helped them clearly identify which parts of the brain were activated via electromagnetic activity. You will never see a more cuddly scientific setup:The babies from English- and Spanish-speaking households had lots of activity in the prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex — the regions of the brain responsible for executive functions, like decision making and problem solving. “Our results suggest that before they even start talking, babies raised in bilingual households are getting practice at tasks related to executive function,” said lead author Naja Ferjan Ramírez in a . “Babies raised listening to two languages seem to stay ‘open’ to the sounds of novel languages longer than their monolingual peers, which is a good and highly adaptive thing for their brains to do,” co-author Patricia Kuhl said in the same release.That adaptive mechanism reaps enormous benefits for both babies and adults. Many studies, like this one out of the , have shown that bilingual adults have better executive brain functions than adults who only speak one language. That means bilingual adults are better able to switch focus between tasks, recall memories, and demonstrate higher-level problem-solving and planning skills. Bilingual kids demonstrate those skills, too. Plus, all of those executive brain functions are key to success in school, and academic success is of long-term happiness. Learning another language can even help prevent or delay the onset of degenerative brain diseases like dementia or Alzheimer’s for older adults.Basically, there is no downside to being bilingual — and the best time to start is early. “Our results underscore the notion that not only are very young children capable of learning multiple languages, but that early childhood is the optimum time for them to begin,” Ferjan Ramírez concluded. Neuroscientist Sam Wang agrees with her:The best part is that you can raise a bilingual child — even if you’re not bilingual. Here are some tips from the : Subscribe for counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. Now get out there and reap those cognitive benefits! Related From Ramses II to Alexander the Great, these leaders helped shaped the world we know today. Why, exactly, don’t you trust that person’s opinion? The “first-of-its-kind” archeological find is being reburied despite the fact that researchers haven’t finished studying it. Sex can be a death trap even for modern toad and frog species. Darwin, Descartes, and Maxwell all believed in these science ‘demons.’ ▸ 7 min — with Up Next There are certain skills that schools need to make sure kids have. The ol’ “Reading, Writing, Arithmetic” is a starting point, but there’s an entire realm of education that our kids need to know — and some are not getting it.&nbsp; {notificationOpen=false}, 2000);" x-data="{notificationOpen: false, notificationTimeout: undefined, notificationText: ''}"&gt;

A new study shows that babies raised in bilingual environments develop core cognitive skills like decision-making and problem-solving — before they even speak.The study, out of the University of Washington, tested 16 babies. Half came from English-speaking households and half came from English- and Spanish-speaking households. The babies listen to a variety of speech sounds, from preverbal to English- and Spanish-specific sounds. Researchers monitored the babies’ responses to the sounds using magnetoencephalography (MEG), which helped them clearly identify which parts of the brain were...

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Laurie Vazquez

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The sooner you expose a baby to a second language, the smarter they’ll be

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