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Why Start Early?
"The earlier a child is exposed to another language the greater
the likelihood that the child will become truly proficient in the language,” says Myelita Melton CEO of SpeakEasy Communications,
Inc, and author of the SpeakEasy Spanish™ series.
Francois Thibaut, founder of the Language Workshop for Children,
says infants begin practicing words (or babbling) at about five months old and start uttering recognizable words between their
eighth and sixteenth month. While an infant’s body is weak at this age, this does not mean that her mind is also weak.
“On the contrary, infants’ brains are strong,
finely-tuned computers programmed to mimic everything they see and hear. Babies are learning all the time. As they’re
listening and watching, they’re absorbing and remembering. As a matter of fact they begin learning their first language(s)
while still in utero,” says Thibaut.
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In addition, by the age of 6 months, an infant’s long
term memory is almost fully developed. Thibaut explains that although unborn infants cannot see, they are cognitively recording
the basic phonetic sounds that their mother speaks. When they are born, they then begin the lifelong process of inventorying
sounds and meanings for every language they hear.
The Disadvantages of Delaying Foreign Language Learning
Waiting
until after the age of 10 to begin introducing foreign languages is disadvantageous. “Some suggest that waiting until
age 10 or later is too late to develop true fluency”, says Melton.
Steven Zelin, Singing CPA (Children's Performing Artist)
and music teacher at Little Dreamers of NYC, explains that children’s language center in the brain develops from the
time they are born until they are 10 years old. As their soft palates form, children have the ability to form the sounds correctly
and, therefore, learn any language.
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