A summary of “Benefits for babies exposed to two languages found in Singaporean birth cohort study” by A*Star Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star)
A*Star reported that infants raised learning two languages have great advantages. Bilingual infants at the age of six months recognized a picture familiar to them faster than monolingual babies. They also focused more on the novel images than monolingual, most likely linked to the fact that bilingual infants grew bored of the familiar images faster. It was shown that this preference showed better results in development before school, examples including better IQ scores, easily expressing thoughts and being open-minded, and getting a better concept, along with the implied language and comprehension skills. (A*Star, 2014)
This article interested me because my mother is German, and she taught my oldest brother German. For unknown reasons, she stopped, and after I found out (and after whining that it wasn't fair), I began to wonder why it was better to learn a second language as a baby rather than an adult. I already knew that babies could learn languages faster because their brains are still developing, but when I found that there were more advantages when learning a second language as an infant, I was interested to find out what they were. Apparently, my older brother had way more advantages than I did...
I feel your pain. My parents only used Spanish or Portuguese (second/third languages for both) when they didn't want us to know what they were talking about. But then again, my older brother was in the same boat as I. You, however, should get some payback from your older brother. Hmmm.
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