New study devoloped in London by a Psycologist found that bilingual kids are at risk of sturrering, here’s some links on the study…
http://adc.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/adc.2007.134114v1
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_69104.html
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2008/WTX050512.htm
I’d love to know what others think, since we’re all teaching more than 1 language to our little ones. :rolleyes:
this is a example of xenophobia
Great Britain is one of the few nations in Europa that speaks only one language
all over the world poeple speak more then one language with no problem
when i lived in Africa all the children in our village knew at least 5 languages
i ran a school in Ghana for a year not one of the kids in my school or any other that i knew of stuttered
this is a very very small study only 317 kids all from the same part of London
i think it is a example of how you can “prove” anything you want with very poor research
there is a lot of research that says bilingual children are more intelligent
we will keep teaching our 2 year old daughter three languages
by the way she speaks great much better then all her 3 year old friends who just speak one language
Hi Tatianna, I so loved your input, partly because I come from a very large family, we, brothers and sisters and all of our children are bilingual, and none of us had any problem whatsoever!
I like how you said that ppl can prove anything with very poor research! That is sooooooo true!! :yes: I feel sorry for ppl that restrain themselves and their children for pure ignorance and fear caused by chonky studies like that!
I agree with everything tatianna said - well put!
When I read the title of this post my first reaction was “What?” because I know there are so many other studies about bilingual kids that shows what an immense benefit it is to speak more than one language. Also I have never in my life heard a bilingual kid that stuttered. As Tatianna mentioned the entire rest of the world is bilingual or trilingual or more, even in the poorest nations the kids usually speak at least two languages, and almost all educational systems teach kids a second language in the primary grades. Every baby ever born has the potential to learn all of the world’s languages with ease, and kids will learn as many languages as they are exposed to - whether it be two or five or fifteen.
I have seen time and time again where poorly done research such as this sets out to “prove” a point, and there’s usually a vested interest. One of the most disgusting ones I’ve seen is a study that “showed” that “Mercury is good for you!” Yes, they were actually claiming that the most poisonous neuro-toxin known to man is “good for kids” and “improves their behavior and performance”!!! I’m not even kidding. If you want to see it here is the link, be sure to read the comment below the video http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/280.html
One wonders what the particular vested interest of this study may be, but it’s pretty clear that one group of 300 kids in one area doesn’t prove the rest of the world wrong for learning many languages! And yes, it’s a shame that there will be people hindered from teaching their kids two languages because of this “study” - how sad!
hi,
i agree with you all. myself and DH are both bilingual and we never stuttered and came from one of the poor countries in the world in africa. these were the only two languages we were exposed to, which we picked up with ease. however, we would like to know when is the ideal age to start teaching our child multiple languages??? as we cant remember when we started speaking both languages.
Thanks.
You probably don’t remember because you probably started hearing it from infant-hood, and I believe that as with all teaching, start as early as possible. That is one of Glenn Doman’s key points - start as early as possible. You can begin exposing your baby to as many languages as you want to, right from birth, there is no need or benefit of waiting. All you have to do is make sure that you are separating the languages, like speak one language in the morning, one in the afternoon, or however you want to do it, just so long as you’re not mixing the two languages. The baby is more susceptible to language in the first year of life than at any other time, so start as young as possible.
Hi there,
I have been through Shichida Method for both my boys and for Shichida Method, they advocate in exposing the child between age 0 to 6 to as many languages as possible. And by exposing your child to the various ‘frequencies’ in different languages, it sort of develops the child’s right brain…
My boy speaks 3 languages with ease, though he has his preferred language - which is English. We do not find him at risk of stuttering.
I think all kids must atleast know two languages and it should be started from a very early age. I have started teaching my little one three languages, who is 22months old. Although she mixes up all the languages and makes her own but I am sure with time, she will know all three. My friends think the opposite but I dont care as i know i am doing the right thing.
I am only speaking English to my boy right now and am planning to speak Mandarin to him soon. But it is not too easy for me as English has always been the primary medium.
Don’t think biligual kids will stutter. Well, at least I don’t grow up stuttering.