a question about multilingual babies

[Eve V. Clark]

The actual STUDIES of young children learning two or more languages in general
show no adverse effects of doing this.  In some situations, bilingual children fare 
better than monolinguals of the same age (e.g., in language awareness tasks).  
Otherwise, all other things being equal, they thrive.  

There's has long been a myth in some circles in the US than bilingualism is bad:
this seems to be based on xenophobic reactions to immigrants on the one hand,
and to the testing of immigrant children at the beginning of the school year (i.e., 
before they had had a chance to learn any English) and then concluding the
children were 'retarded in development'.   Since most of the world is bilingual
or multilingual, this conclusion seems (and seemed then) rather misguided.

Nowadays it is often tinged by social class: being bilingual is a good thing for
middle-class children, but some people view bilingualism as a bad thing for
lower-class children....   This seems a bit perverse.

I am sorry to see some of these old attitudes still flourishing, and being backed 
by dubious citations from the web.   (Anecdotes are never data.)  If there were 
any reputable studies showing ill-effects, fair enough: we could sit down and
evaluate the studies, against all the other studies around.
But I don't know of any of such studies in  the literature on child bilingualism.   

I would always advocate a bilingual upbringing if it's feasible, provided the parents 
are comfortable with it.  Their attitudes are critical.  Being bilingual is a boon socially 
and educationally.  And it could even contribute to the policies and welfare of the
US in the global economy.   

Eve Clark




On May 8, 2011, at 9:18 PM, parisa Daftarifard wrote:

> Dear Mohinish,
>  
> Thank you for your question. Although Bilingualism might not be a risk factor (nobody said this for sure through research though) but would compound the situaiton if the child has the hiden autistic factors. Although there are many as you can read below suggest that early bilingualism might increase autistic symptoms.
>  
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000085.html
>  
>  
> who would like to create a risky situation for his or her kids. 
> 1.  There is no well known reason discovered for autism.
> 2.  there are many disagreements about the way children learn language
>  
> what your result would  be? To rush the poor baby in a risky situation that some articles with limited number of subjects showed or in a natural situation where billions of children are grown up.
>  
> Bilingualism can be achieved even when the baby starts speaking one language. Why should we expose our kids to two or three or even worse four languages to have maybe a healthy cognitively high (we don't know how much higher statistically?) boy in future and maybe not!
> As a mother and researcher I suggest you give your kid time to learn his first language! then help him learn as many languages as he would like when he starts speaking.
>  
> Best,
> Parisa
> 
> On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 6:57 AM, Mohinish <mohinish.s at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>> 
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>> 
>> -- 
>> Parisa Daftarifard
>> Phd Student of TEFL
>> Islamic Azad University of Science and Research
>> 
>> 
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> 
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Parisa Daftarifard
> Phd Student of TEFL
> Islamic Azad University of Science and Research
> 
> 
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