a question about multilingual babies

[Mohinish]

I too share other posters' understanding that bilingualism is not a risk factor. In fact Kovács & Mehler (PNAS, 2009: http://www.pnas.org/content/106/16/6556.short) show that there can be cognitive GAINS in 7-mo-old bilinguals, compared to monolinguals. 

I think there is a causal asymmetry - certain developmental trajectories that lead to abnormal conditions like autism might include language delays, but language delays by themselves need not be the CAUSE of these conditions; and I would be very interested to see evidence that language delay CAUSES problems like autism. We know that there can be substantial variation in, e.g, production, such that some kids start speaking earlier than others.  I don't think that the later-speaking kids' 'delays' count as pathological at all.

Parisa, could you include some key references that suggest that learning a single language early is better than learning multiple languages?

Thanks
Mohinish



On May 8, 2011, at 11:11 PM, parisa Daftarifard wrote:

> Language delay is much more dangerous than loosing time for true bilingualism. There are many risk factors like being autistic, developmental delay and global delay in terms of cognition. I think recent psychology suggests for learning one language first and then being exposed to other languages. I can send you some books off list.
>  
> Best,
> Parisa
> 
> On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 3:55 AM, beachjade <beachjade at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Tamar and Yves,
> 
> There is a recent paper by Janet Werker that may be relevant to your second question about how early should you expose your child to his many languages.  In contrast to an earlier response to your post, my reading of the literature suggests that bilingualism/multilingualism in an of itself is not a risk factor in development.  This is echoed by 
> 
> http://www.lsadc.org/info/pdf_files/Bilingual.pdf
> 
> http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/pspi_10_3.pdf
> 
> http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2010/werker.cfm
> 
> 
> On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 10:48 AM, Tamar & Yves <tamarmr at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
> Our 10 months old son is exposed to 3 languages at home ( each one of
> us is speaking to him his mother- tongue, and we speak English between
> us) and to a 4th one outside.
> 
> 
> Soon he will be starting Nursery, and we were wondering what language
> it should be in. Is it better to expose him simultaneously to all 4
> languages or should we do it gradually over the first few years of his
> life (It's possible to sign him up to a nursery in my husnband's
> mother tongue (2)/ english (3)/ bi lingual (enviroment+English)(4))
> 
> 
> We don't want language acquisition to be too much of a burden on him,
> and not sure how many languages he can learn at once.
> 
> 
> We are aware of the large number of factors affecting the answer, but
> does anyone know or refer us to research done on the specific issues
> of (i) number of languages babies can learn and its implication on
> their emotional state; and (ii) Is it better to expose a baby to those
> languages simultaneously or gradually over the first few years of his
> life.
> 
> Thanks,
> Tamar & Yves
> 
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Info-CHILDES" group.
> To post to this group, send email to info-childes at googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to info-childes+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Info-CHILDES" group.
> To post to this group, send email to info-childes at googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to info-childes+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Parisa Daftarifard
> Phd Student of TEFL
> Islamic Azad University of Science and Research
> 
> 
> -- 
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Info-CHILDES" group.
> To post to this group, send email to info-childes at googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to info-childes+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Info-CHILDES" group.
To post to this group, send email to info-childes at googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to info-childes+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/info-childes/attachments/20110508/ababaef2/attachment.htm>