One of the most impressive skills a toddler learns is the ability to communicate. During their first year, babies’ brains are fine-tuned to distinguish the sounds of language, which is why only a language that is heard during this initial 12 months can be learned to a truly native level. It is vital to talk to your baby even before she can answer you, since while you are talking her brain is forming the connections that will later enable her to understand and create these sounds for herself. She is distinguishing patterns, learning sounds that will be used repeatedly, and even predicting what is likely to come next.
It is interesting to note that in languages in which nouns are assigned a gender, such as French and Spanish, the gender is learned automatically by native speakers, as a part of the word itself. This is something that people coming to the language later in life, when their brain lacks the vital plasticity, may struggle to learn.
Bilingualism boosts brain function and has even been linked to an ability to stave off dementia.
These first few years of heightened brain activity are, of course, the best time to learn an additional language.
When raising a bilingual child, consistency is key: if, say, you are an English speaker and your partner is French, you should each communicate with your baby only in your own language. Once she is between two and three years old she should be able to differentiate between the two languages and use them in the correct context. She may well favor one language over the other, probably the one that is shared between the parents, but you shouldn’t give up on speaking the other—your toddler will be absorbing it even if she is initially resistant to using it. It is also important to respect the inherent cultural connections; songs and stories should be shared in both languages, if possible.
