Second language can help babies to adapt
BEING able to speak a second language has a great many benefits, but did you know just how young this can come into effect?
New research recently published in reveals babies as young as six months of age can benefit from being exposed to a second language within the home.
Researchers at York University’s Faculty of Health examined data from two previous studies.
The first study observed infants while in their cots as they were shown a series of images in various positions on a projector.
Their eye movements were recorded to indicate where on the screen the infants were fo- cusing throughout the study. Half of the infants came from a bilingual home and half were from a home where only one language was used.
The results showed all in- fants regardless of languages spoken at home were able to predict whether certain images would appear next on the left or right-hand side of the screen. This showed infants as young as six months of age can recognise patterns and anticipate what will happen next.
The second studywas essentially the same as the first with one very important difference: researchers changed the pattern halfway through the experiment. They noticed that those who were being raised in a bilingual home were able to adapt to the new rule and better predict the next image than those who were raised in a monolingual home.
Researchers concluded that language and visual information can influence how well an infant’s attentional system develops. That is the area in the brain which allows them to solve difficult problems.
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