The impact of bilingualism on early childhood development

Tímea Clark, University of Trnava, Slovakia

Bilingual children's early linguistic performance differences can be linked to a somewhat different pattern of language development. Earlier than those who are monolingual, bilingual children understand that objects and their names are different and that an object can have multiple names. Although metacognitive development benefits from an understanding of language as a symbolic reference system, this does not always translate into better performance on early vocabulary development assessments. Since the brain is at its most adaptable between the ages of 0 and 3, young children's minds are particularly well-suited to learning a second language. As early as six months of birth, newborns exposed to bilingualism show exceptional proficiency in identifying a change in language. They learn a second language as easily as they learn to walk. This article describes bilingual development based on scientific findings.

Key words: bilingualism,early development, bilingual children, language learning