Learning a second language when you are still young is certainly easier than learning it when you are already an adult. On the other hand, children who are trained in those who have to learn different sounds and words, switching from one language to another depending on the context in which they find themselves, are more likely to handle more information at the same time with the result that they are faster in solving problems of various kinds. We talk about the pros and cons of being bilingual with Dr. Marco Nuara, a pediatrician at Humanitas.

The study

According to the study conducted jointly by the University of Udine, Irccs Eugenio Medea and the Claudian Provincial School of Health and published in the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, bilingual children have an advantage over their monolingual peers. In young children who are able to speak two languages perfectly, in fact, the cognitive abilities and short-term working memory increase, that is, the cognitive ability that allows to arrive at a solution in case of a problem first.

Exposing children to a context in which another language is spoken thus strengthens some of their abilities without necessarily compromising the development of the mother tongue. The study examined 62 children between 4 and 6 years of age of the same gender distribution, manual skills and socio-cultural level. Half of the sample (31 subjects) attended the Italian state kindergarten while the other half attended the international kindergarten for about 8 hours a day while for the rest of the time continued to be exposed to the Italian language, the mother tongue.