image credit: bored, via flickr

The incredible capacity of a young human brain to simultaneously acquire several languages at a time is something that will never cease to amaze me. While learning a new language is often difficult for our mature adult brains, it’s actually a piece of cake for children under the age of 7. So how exactly does a child who depends on his parents for every single aspect of his existence become bilingual (or even multilingual) so effortlessly?

The answer won’t come as much of a shock to those who are raising bilingual children, but it is fascinating nonetheless. A recent Italian study confirmed that children who are exposed to two different languages from a very young age will actually develop two different neural circuits dedicated to both languages. In other words, babies are officially language learning machines. According to this study, “each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday…Babies being raised bilingual-by simply speaking to them in two languages-can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months. While new language learning is easiest by age 7, it markedly declines before puberty.”

So what does all of this mean for bilingual families? The most important implication is the sheer importance of exposing young children to new languages before the age of 7. Whether they realize it or not, parents and other caregivers are constantly programming their children’s brains by using their input to develop their children’s language skills. A parent’s role in their children’s language development is of the utmost importance, so take advantage of every opportunity to talk to your children and expose them to as many opportunities to hear new languages as possible.  Reading stories and singing songs are great ways to help your child’s language development along, as are baby talk and even letting your baby listen to conversations between adults. The more your child hears each of his languages, the more fine tuned the language areas of his bilingual brain will become.

For those of you who may be considering the benefits of exposing your children to new languages, remember that the window of opportunity begins to close around the age of 7. Of course it’s never too late to discover a new language and culture, but learning languages will be much easier for your child if you start early. For more information on the benefits of bilingualism, please see the Bilingualism Basics section of our Resources page.