Blessed multi-lingual child

Like every other child development stage, everyone has an opinion on the speech development progress of a child. There is a lot of noise made on the negative effects of a multi lingual environment to a child whose speech is only just developing – well, I believe they are all old wives’ tales. How could a child, born without language skills, possibly be ‘confused’ in a multi lingual environment? If they are born without language skills, then it follows that young children don’t even know that they are learning more than one language. They simply mimic what they hear around them. My two year old understands Swahili as fluently as he understands English, courtesy of a Swahili speaking nanny. He also understands some French and Kinyarwanda, which he picks up from crèche and the neighbours. Children simply use the words and sentences that they hear from us – it is easy, fun and the most natural thing in the world to them! And contrary to popular belief according to African tradition, it does not affect his cognitive abilities or even speech development. For example, my son speaks to me in English and to his nanny in Swahili, which I do not speak myself. I am sure he does this without even realising he is doing it. With the world fast becoming a global village, being multi-lingual is perhaps the number one educational asset that a child can start off with. It already gives him a head start in a world that is fast becoming a multi cultural metropolis. Speaking more than one language obviously has practical benefits. But in the 20th century, researchers and educators considered a second language to interfere in brain development that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development. Modern research in the 21st century has shown that the advantages of being multilingual are even more fundamental than just being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being multilingual or bilingual, it turns out, makes one smarter. It can have a stimulating effect on your brain, which in turn improves cognitive skills – even those not related to language. So apparently the 20th century researchers were not entirely wrong about language interfering in the development of the brain. However it is positive interference according to psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee. Multiple language skills interfere with brain development by stimulating the brain into a “rigorous exercise” that puts more cognitive muscle to work; improving general brain activity much like regular exercise improves physical body health. Multi or bilingualism is considered very helpful in shielding against dementia in old age. The basic difference between the bilingual child is a heightened ability to monitor the environment. “Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often — you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another. It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving” - Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain. In his research, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better at multi-tasking, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it. So to improve my multitasking skills, invaluable to all parents, I am learning two more languages. Luckily most African parents are at least bilingual! Well done us!