Scientists Examine Bilingualism and Babies
October 26, 2011 by Irene Sege
Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children
Although experts no longer fear that young children growing up in a bilingual household will experience language confusion, relatively little has been known about how the brain acquires two languages. Now, in “Hearing Bilingual,” The New York Times reports that scientists are getting a clearer picture of the differences in the brain development of babies in monolingual and bilingual homes.
“As the relatively new science of bilingualism pushes back to the origins of speech and language, scientists are teasing out the earliest differences between brains exposed to one language and brains exposed to two,” writes Dr. Perri Klass, national medical director of Reach Out and Read and professor of pediatrics and journalism at New York University. “Researchers have found ways to analyze infant behavior — where babies turn their gazes, how long they pay