International Mother Language Day 2019 – Being multilingual comes with these 6 health benefits

Do you and your kids know at least two languages? Here's how being multilingual benefits you.

Upneet Pansare | Updated: February 21, 2019 2:51 pm

Being multilingual can help kids with autism. ©Shutterstock

International Mother Language Day 2019 is observed on February 21. Owing to its vast variety of languages, India has a large number of multilingual people. Many of us Indians are comfortable speaking and understanding at least 2-3 languages—our mother tongue, English and Hindi which are widely spoken across the country and taught in our schools, and also other languages which we may be well versed with because of having friends or having grown up in neighbourhoods that speak different languages. A number of studies say that being multilingual has a number of health benefits. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Prevents dementia: A team of researchers has established that years of bilingualism change how the brain carries out tasks that require concentrating on one piece of information without becoming distracted by other information. This makes the brain more efficient and economical with its resources. ‘After years of daily practice managing interference between two languages, bilinguals become experts at selecting relevant information and ignoring information that can distract from a task,’ said Dr Ana Inés Ansaldo from the University of Montreal in a paper published in the Journal of Neurolinguistics.

Helps kids with autism: A study in Child Development journal found that bilingualism may increase cognitive flexibility in kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The researchers arrived at this conclusion after comparing how easily 40 children between the ages of six and nine, with or without ASD, who were either monolingual or bilingual, were able to shift tasks in a computer-generated test. The children were asked to sort a single object appearing on a computer screen by colour (i.e. sort blue rabbits and red boats as being either red or blue) and were then asked to switch and sort the same objects instead by their shape (i.e. sort blue rabbits and red boats by shape regardless of their colour). Autism tips for parents – Help your autistic child communicate better.

Improves focus and concentration: Being bilingual can enhance the ability to maintain attention and focus and also improve other cognitive abilities, says a study published in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. Bilingual speakers have better-sustained attention than monolingual speakers.

Boosts brain’s elasticity: Learning new languages enhances our brain’s elasticity and its ability to code information, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports has found. The study mentions that the more foreign languages one learns, the more effectively brain reacts and processes the data accumulated in the course of learning. ‘The more languages someone mastered, the faster the neuron network coding the information on the new words was formed. Consequently, this new data stimulates the brain’s physiology — loading the mind with more knowledge boosts its elasticity,’ said Yuriy Shtyrov, a researcher at the University of Helsinki.

Makes kids better at problem-solving: Babies born in bilingual households are better at problem-solving. “Before they even start talking, babies raised in bilingual households are getting practice at tasks related to executive function,” said lead author Naja Ferjan Ramírez from the University of Washington. ‘This suggests that bilingualism shapes not only language development, but also cognitive development more generally,’ Ramírez added in the paper published online in the journal Developmental Science.

Makes recovery after stroke easier: Bilinguals are twice as likely to recover from a stroke compared to their unilingual counterparts, a team of researchers wrote in the American Heart Association journal Stroke. Researchers found that about 40 percent of bilingual patients had normal cognitive functions following a stroke, compared to about 20 percent of single-language patients. Bilinguals performed better on post-stroke tests that measured attention, and ability to retrieve and organize information.

Published: February 21, 2019 8:59 am | Updated:February 21, 2019 2:51 pm

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