Bilingual growth can improve attention and competence: Study

Adults who grew up and speak two different languages ​​can switch their attention between different tasks faster than those who learn a second language later in life, according to new research. a study. This is just one of the many cognitive benefits of being bilingual.

Research has shown that children are bilingual They constantly switch between two languages ​​in their brain, which increases “cognitive flexibility,” the ability to switch between thinking about different concepts or multiple concepts simultaneously, and “selective attention abilities,” which is the mental process of focusing on one task or thing at a time.

Other studies have shown that bilingual children can Complete mental puzzles faster And more efficient than those who only speak one language. Reason? Requires speaking two languages’Special servicesThese are high-level cognitive skills such as planning, decision-making, problem-solving and organizing. Basically, this task is an exercise for the brain.

In the new study, bilingual adults participated in an experiment that required seeing images on a screen that gradually shifted and noticed the changes. Adults who began speaking a second language as infants were able to notice changes much faster than those who learned another language later in life.

Bilingual children “have to make use of multiple sources of visual information, such as mouth movements, facial expressions, and subtle gestures,” when they are brought up in a more complex language environment, says Dean D’Souza, study author and psychology lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University in A. Release.

“Children from bilingual homes adapt to their more complex language environment by sampling more of their visual environment and giving more importance to new information,” the study authors wrote.

When children learn a second language at an early age (between 0 and 3), their brains are more flexible, which makes it easier.

It is important that the mental benefits of starting a new language early appear to persist even as children grow into adulthood, D’Souza said in the statement.

If you speak one language, but hope to teach your children another language, there are ways to introduce it in your home. For example, singing and listening to music in another language, watching educational language-language TV programs, and taking language lessons are all opportunities to introduce children to other languages, according to American Society for Speech and Language Hearing.

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