Ages 18 Months - Kindergarten
We find study after study showing the benefits of children being bilingual at an early age. Cognitive benefits include a stronger memory and ability to pay attention. Since children need to rely on people emotions and facial expressions, bilingual children will have stronger empathy. As children need to learn how different languages work in developing reading and writing habits, bilingual children tend to understand their own language with more confidence than their peers, in addition to having a higher executive function in decoding both learned languages. Studies have shown children are happier when attending bilingual programs and have fewer behavioral problems. A student’s sense of belonging and validation is stronger when they hear their language being valued within their community. And for those learning the new language, children have greater respect and appreciation for diverse values and cultures.
For many of today’s parents, learning a foreign language started in junior high school--years after easy ‘word and message’ assimilation could or should have started. Today’s thinking has a different approach.
At La Jolla Montessori School, we begin Spanish/English learning at eighteen months! Surely America’s next generation of leaders should be proficient in a minimum of two languages.
But, the overriding value of teaching toddlers and preschoolers two languages concerns their immediate gains in learning about processes and problem-solving.
Young minds grasp language early and the interplay between words, language, and learning allow children’s minds to add an interconnecting component that plays itself out in communicating with the world around them.
La Jolla Montessori uses a two-teacher methodology--one teacher speaking only English and one teacher speaking only Spanish. The result: a broader flow of precise vocabulary, nouns, verbs, sentence structures, and meaning.