Bringing Up Bilingual Baby

by Lauren Nemec

If you’re thinking about raising your child to be bilingual, one of the keys to success is to start as soon as possible. Studies have long shown that a child's brain is primed for learning languages from infancy until about three years of age. However, recent studies from the University of British Columbia imply that an even smaller window of time is ideal for introducing bilingualism to your child.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have made a new discovery regarding the way babies learn languages. According to the study, babies use facial clues (such as rhythm and movement of the mouth, muscle movements, and facial expressions) to distinguish between languages being spoken to them.

Babies from bilingual (French-English) homes and babies from monolingual (English) homes were shown a silent video of a person speaking in English, then in French. After a few moments, babies from 4-6 months old would lose interest in the video until the languages were switched, signifying that they can distinguish between different languages solely based on visual clues. (See the study in action! This is from UBC's Psych Department).

However, babies exposed to only one language tend to lose this ability by the age of 8 months. In the study, 8-month old babies with no multilingual experience were not able to make the distinction. As the saying goes, “use it or lose it”.

If you would like to read more about the study, here are some interesting articles:
Babies can tell if parents are bilingual
Secrets of babies' language skills
How Babies Decode Faces

If your child is older than 8 months, it's not too late to try to raise your child to be bilingual. (In fact, you're never too old to learn a foreign language).

Here are some articles giving advice about raising a multilingual child:

Ten Steps to Raising a Multilingual Child

Raising Bilingual Children: The First Five Steps to Success