Benefits of a multilingual environment

Simona Montanari, PhD Professor, shares advice for parents on the benefits and advantages of raising your child in a multilingual household
Benefits Of Raising Children In A Multilingual Environment
KidsInTheHouse the Ultimate Parenting Resource
Kids in the House Tour

Benefits of a multilingual environment

Comment
103
Like
103
Transcription: 
There are many benefits to being raised in a bilingual multilingual household. First of all, there are emotional benefits. If a child can speak the parents' language, he can better understand where the parents come from, the culture, the values, and can form a stronger attachment with the parents. There's also social benefits. Bilingual children tend to have more cultural sensitivity, more understanding and tolerance for other cultures and for diversity. There are then cognitive advantages. There is an increased creative thinking or flexibility in thinking. There is an increased and earlier understanding of how language works; this is called metalinguistic awareness. And so in a way, bilinguals are even ready earlier than monolinguals to learn to read and develop literacy. they kind of think about language, they think about how it works and about its elements, etc. And so there's a variety of benefits going from social to emotional to cognitive benefits associated to being raised in a bilingual or multilingual environment.

Simona Montanari, PhD Professor, shares advice for parents on the benefits and advantages of raising your child in a multilingual household

Related Videos

Transcript

Expert Bio

More from Expert

Simona Montanari, PhD

Professor

Simona Montanari is Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on language development and second language acquisition in childhood. She received a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Southern California specializing in language development in monolingual and multilingual children. Dr. Montanari has published her research in prestigious peer-reviewed journals and she is regularly invited to present on early bilingualism and trilingualism locally and internationally. Dr. Montanari has also been involved in the creation and implementation of an Italian-English dual language program in the Glendale Unified School District, for which she continues to work as a consultant. Dr. Montanari has two trilingual and tri-literate daughters, six and seven years of age.

More Parenting Videos from Simona Montanari, PhD >
  Listen or Watch
Must See First Year Videos
Three important rules about your baby's first foods
First year milestones
Postnatal depression and loneliness advice
Baby losing interest in nursing
The importance of spending quality time during early childhood
Narrating an infant's environment
Research based benefits of co-sleeping
Bonding versus attachment
Bonding with your baby after a less-than-perfect birth
Preventing postpartum depression
Play All 34 Videos
Featured Experts: Alan Greene, MD, Lawrence Kagan, MD, Barbara Olinger, MSW
More Playlists >
Transcription: 
There are many benefits to being raised in a bilingual multilingual household. First of all, there are emotional benefits. If a child can speak the parents' language, he can better understand where the parents come from, the culture, the values, and can form a stronger attachment with the parents. There's also social benefits. Bilingual children tend to have more cultural sensitivity, more understanding and tolerance for other cultures and for diversity. There are then cognitive advantages. There is an increased creative thinking or flexibility in thinking. There is an increased and earlier understanding of how language works; this is called metalinguistic awareness. And so in a way, bilinguals are even ready earlier than monolinguals to learn to read and develop literacy. they kind of think about language, they think about how it works and about its elements, etc. And so there's a variety of benefits going from social to emotional to cognitive benefits associated to being raised in a bilingual or multilingual environment.