Bilingual Boomerang: The Amazing Effects of Teaching Children Two Languages

The sooner you begin introducing a second language into your child's life, the sooner your child begins to acquire a lifetime of language skills. Did you know that the most recent research suggests that the ability to learn a second language is highest between birth and age six?

Our society becomes more global each year and requires today's young child to learn at least two, if not more, languages by college. It is a requirement for every student leaving public high school in the United States to have successfully completed two years of second language courses. We can make this later life language learning easier by beginning the introduction of second and third languages early in a child's life. Begin at birth and continue through age five is best!

The benefits of learning languages at a young age are countless. Dr. Ellen Bialystok of York University reports that children who received instruction in two languages scored twice as high on language tests than their monolingual peers. We have highlighted some of the most amazing research reports below:

Children who learn two languages early in life read sooner.

Bilingual children experience improved communication skills.

They show advanced cognitive development.

Children learning two languages or more have a heightened awareness of other cultures.

Bilingual children score higher on the math and verbal sections of standardized tests.

Children who learn a second language early in life will most often speak the new language with native pronunciation.

The sooner you begin the second language learning, the more apt your child is to learn it faster and retain it better.

Often times people will ask why should Spanish be the 2nd language of choice in the US? It seems an easy answer for most, but we have outlined various reasons below:

Over 28 million homes in the United States have Spanish as their first language.

There are currently over 44 million Latinos living in the United States.

Spanish is the most requested language program in the United States.

You open up your child's world to more than 300 million people worldwide by giving them Spanish as second language.

The research is in! The experts agree! The earlier the better when it comes to introducing a second language to the young children of our world. Let's keep the bilingual boomerang of language flowing seamlessly for the youth of today. Let's provide these young children with the tools necessary to travel successfully through our very global society.

About The Author-- Beth Butler is the creator of the BOCA BETH Language Learning Series for young children ages birth - ten. Sample the BOCA BETH music and movies for free at http://www.bocabeth.com Call toll free to 1.877.825.2622 or 1.813.244.1432.

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