Why should my child learn a second

language so young?

Continued...

As technology has advanced, scientists have discovered just how different the brain of the young child is compared to the brain of an adult and how this applies to language development.   Evidence is growing that the brains of babies and young children have an overabundance of nerve cell connections (synapses). Experts believe that this over-abundance allows young children's brains to be molded to a large extent by the stimuli and experiences that they are exposed to.

It is believed that the survival of many of the nerve cell connections in a young child's brain is based on the ‘use it or loose it’ decree.   If a child is regularly exposed to a stimulus that activates a particular nerve cell connection, that connection is strengthened.  If the connection is not stimulated, it will eventually fade away.  Thus, the young child's brain is molded by experience.

Each language that a child is exposed to is believed to stimulate particular neuronal synapses. 

The brain’s plasticity that is so evident in early childhood eventually ends.  Experts believe that it substantially slows in middle childhood and ends sometime before or around puberty.   After this ‘window of opportunity’ or critical period closes, language learning takes an entirely different neuronal pathway.   Back to Why Learn Young Page...