Most of us will learn a new language in school, pick up a few new words and forget most of it later in life. While it’s never too late to start learning a new language, experts have proven that the earlier children start, the more effective and far-reaching the benefits are.
Here are just 12 great reasons for your child to learn a new language:
1. Improves child’s overall academic performance
While learning a new language, children will also improve their reading abilities, as well as their performance in other subjects. Studies have shown that according to standardised tests, multilingual people score higher in other subjects like maths, social studies and reading than monolingual students.
2. Develops their brain
Children will improve their cognitive abilities. It will increase their creativity, memory, reading and problem-solving skills. As well as supporting brain development, research also suggests learning a language may also delay diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia from occurring.
3. Children find it easier to learn a new language than adults
Ever wonder why it’s so much harder learning a new language now, than when you were younger? Studies have shown that young children (2-6 year olds) have multiple learning receptors in their brain responsible for language acquisition. These diminish once we grow older and make it harder picking up a new language. Children are enthusiastic and have a real thirst for learning when they’re young, making it far easier to pick up.
4. Improves child’s learning abilities in their native language
Another advantage is that bilingual children naturally also improve their capabilities in their native language. It helps them understand languages as a whole and communicate better in their native language.
5. Helps your children in the future
Being multilingual will have several advantages in the future. First, they will have a competitive advantage when looking for a new job as employees are increasingly looking for people who can speak another language, to bring value to their business. It will help them get ahead in the job market.
6. Helpes them multi-task
Switching from one language to the other, from one language structure to another, makes people more skilled at multi-tasking.
7. Improves your child’s memory
When learning a new language, one will need to learn a whole new language grammar structure and new vocabulary. While training the brain, this activity will also help strengthen children’s memory in the long term.
8. Makes them smarter
Besides all the other benefits a child will develop, speaking a foreign language will boost their problem-solving and decision-making skills. As they learn to communicate and recognise meaning in a different language, so they are able to apply it to different areas in their lives.
9. Boosts their creativity
In the beginning while learning a new language, children will learn a lot of new words and phrases at once. While improving their language abilities, they will have to reach for alternative words when forgetting the right words. Having to think outside the box and explore different ways of saying a phrase is just one example of how they’ll instantly boost their creativity.
10. And crucially, learning a language builds their confidence
It will automatically improve a child’s confidence as they master a new skill. It will require them to speak to native speakers and be more social in order for them to perfect the language. This is fundamental in language development.
11. Makes them more open-minded to other cultures
While learning a new language, one will also be introduced to new cultures and people. When children are exposed to other cultures from an early age, they often grow up being more appreciative of different cultures across the world.
12. Makes them it easier to learn another language in the future
The first time is always the hardest! Techniques used when learning a new language can also be applied when learning another language. The brain will recognise structures in the language and remember how to break them down in order to remember them.
These are just a few of the many benefits learning a language can bring you. So what are you waiting for – help your child start learning a new language today!
New classes for 4-6 y.o. in Vilnius on Thursdays and Fridays at 6 pm.
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