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Language- bilingual babies - 7/21/2009 11:14:38 AM

GreedyTop

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Not that the concept is unknown, but this article is interesting....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_med_healthbeat_bilingual_tots

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RE: Language- bilingual babies - 7/21/2009 1:00:00 PM

Vendaval

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I just read that article, Greedy. Good stuff, we are much more malleable at that early age, in the later years, not so much. lol

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RE: Language- bilingual babies - 7/21/2009 2:34:01 PM

slaveboyforyou

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I know I took two years of Spanish in college (I was required to take 12 hours of a foreign language for my degree), and I only know how to order a beer, count, and ask where the airport is. I had the hardest time with foreign languages. Of course, I didn't take one until I was in my 20's. It's definitely harder to learn at that age. I don't know why U.S. schools insist on waiting until you're in high school to teach them. It definitely should be something you learn early in your childhood.

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RE: Language- bilingual babies - 7/21/2009 4:48:46 PM

mefisto69

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This has been known for decades. It's a combination of American hubris and piss poor education. I'm American...... let THEM learn My language. Instead of teaching methods that immerse the child ( or any student ) in the culture, teachers are prepared at university level to TEACH FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER TO THE LAST CHAPTER throughout the school year. Most text books are geared toward teaching vocabulary and verb usage. It matters little if anything is absorbed, and the amount of time spent on conversation is minimal.

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RE: Language- bilingual babies - 7/21/2009 7:43:54 PM

scarlethiney

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There was, still may be a very interesting program that begin in PA to teach adults and children with brain injuries how to read, write, speak, walk.
What the researchers and doctors discovered is that people with brain injuries learn no differently than infants and small children. They basically have to start from square one by re-learning to crawl, then walk etc.
This program called "Teach Your Baby To Read and Teach Your Baby Math was marketed for children 6months to 5yrs .
I bought this program for my son when he was 18months. By age two and half he was able to read a menu in a restaurant and order his food much to the amazement of restaurant staff. Now whether this program helped facilitate his learning or he was just naturally a bright a child (I like to think so ) it made perfect sense to me and it was fun, much more so than the rote learning children got in school in the 80's when he grew up. Very interesting process.
An interesting out come is that my son does not live to read as I do. He is very mechanically inclined in the extreme and has above average mathematical abilities. I also did the Teach Your Baby Math program with him which consisted of cards with red dots denoting the numbers. Two red dots for the number 2 etc.
I do think the greatest learning period for children is between 9months and 5yrs.
http://www.iahp.org/fileadmin/PDFs/GRPcatalog_2008.pdf

Thanks for posting the link. Interesting article.

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RE: Language- bilingual babies - 7/21/2009 8:00:31 PM

Arpig

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I learned french at the age of roughlt 8 by being imersed in it in Cambodia and then Quebec. I learned it better than my older siblings, which, according to the article was to be expected, but I also learned it better than my younger brother, which shouldn't have been the case. I also had no difficulty with a Spanish class I took in grade 12, even though due to a scheduling conflict I could only attend half the classes. I had a friend who could pick up languages with almost magical ease, in the 6 or 7 years I knew him he taught himself both Turkish and Chinese, both in his spare time!!. Some people just have a really easy time learning a language, and I wonder why that might be. Could their brains somehow retain some of the baby's ability to absorb languages, or is it something else.

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RE: Language- bilingual babies - 7/21/2009 9:27:13 PM

Termyn8or

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In some countries multiple language proficiency is required to graduate. I would think that it would be a part of the early curriculum. During early life the mind is like a sponge, it is the perfect time to teach new tricks, whether it is second or possibly even a third language, or to bring out any artistic flair the kid might have. That has been known for a long time. The mind is very flexible and adaptable at that time. I mean VERY flexible.

Years ago some kids were given a hemispherectomy because of IIRC epilepsy, severe epilepy. The announcer said "You are literally looking at people with half a brain". They found that the earlier it was done, the better the patient would adapt. Normally the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body at least when it comes to motor impulses. The patients were no doubt paralyzed on one side for a time, but the younger they were the more quickly the new neural pathways were built.

They also used to contend that one side of the brain deals with emotion and the other with logic, something like that. Wouldn't mind finding out how these people are - their demeanor and so forth. Do some act like Spock or Data, and the ones with the other side take to the arts and so forth ? Enquiring minds want to know.

However that is old science and I am not so sure I ever believed it lock, stock and barrel. I do believe what the article in the OP asserts, the younger the better. If I had kids, they would read before they ever went to school, as I did. The second language I would not be able to teach, but I could get a tutor. They could teach me at the same time, or try to.

I think if you take a look around the world you will find secondary or foreign languages in the schools alot more than in the US. Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, a few others. One of their main secondary laguages is English, and many of them have a better command of it than those educated in the US, if you can call it that. Our hubris makes us think all we need is English, and then a bunch of people won't even spare the effort to learn that correctly, as referenced in other threads right here on CM.

Babies can learn all sorts of things, and quickly. There is a contingent of people in the US who routinely throw their six month olds in the pool. It may look like sink or swim, but they watch. They all swim. Some swim before they can walk. That is the adaptability, it is simply a slightly different environment.

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