Technically, there is no particular age for learning a new language. Not only does it act as a recreational factor, but it also accounts for the child’s social advantages and cognitive abilities. Making your child learn a new language means that your child is already a few steps ahead of other children in the sphere of learning new things. There are more than six thousand languages in the world, each with its own level of depth and perception. Learning a language not only helps the child adopt a new way of learning and understanding things around them but also has a lot of other advantages. Some of them are listed below.
Contents
A Child Becomes Linguistically Adept
Children’s minds can take in most of the information that comes their way. This is also why children remember almost everything they see for a prolonged time. One should take advantage of this by learning a new language. Numerous studies have revealed that children who have learned a foreign language tend to have a firmer grip on their native language. One explanation for this is the resultant expanded vocabulary of the child that helps the child automatically pick up the habit of learning a foreign language. They pick up on the ability to mold their thinking process as per the language they are learning, enhancing the depth of what they are already trying to grasp. Multilingual environments are a good way of developing your child’s mind.
A multilingual approach also helps children eliminate their personal biases and accept differences amongst peer groups. Hence, they become more culturally aware by exploring the diverse groups present in their classes.
Gives Your Child an Advantage Over Others
Suppose children are made to learn a new language before they turn five at the Montessori nursery level. In that case, their brain learns to provide equal priority to the brain as the mother tongue and not as a second additional language. This advantage would be of great use in a child’s academics when he has been asked to choose a language to study. As the age of the learner of the new language increases, so does their instinctive fear in them of making mistakes. A young child lacks such inhibitions and thus learns the language way more in-depth at a younger age. Remember, this might be challenging if your child grows up. Hence, it is best to start at an early age.
Enhanced Empathy
Learning a language involves learning its grammar and the subtle art of language that enhances the child’s scope of understanding when it comes to the perception and understanding of emotions, sentiments, culture, and expressions of a group of people who belong to diverse backgrounds. This further results in your child developing an even more enhanced sense of empathy in your child that helps build growth and performance on a personal level rather than academic growth. Thus, even such standardized tests are affected by the children’s cognitive achievement since it would lead to quite a few changes in the way things are navigated in the real world.
Conclusion
Thus, learning a second or foreign languages also includes enhanced problem-solving and listening skills. This is perhaps why most prominent schools in Abu Dhabi have made it a point to encourage their children to learn at least one foreign language in their education system. Proficiency in languages other than one’s mother tongue also helps the child understand the concept of multitasking from an early stage. Furthermore, learning an extra language may also increase your child’s future prospects where they can study broad and follow the language of instruction without any difficulty.