It has been proposed that in addition to bilingual children having an enhanced ability to process sounds, that they also use two completely separate sound systems to learn languages. In his latest studies, researcher Skott Freedman of Ithaca College has examined sound sets in English/Spanish-speaking bilingual children. Freedman’s results confirmed the dual-process learning ability, which dives deeper into how bilingual children pick up languages so quickly. His research also showed that bilingual children not only learn two different words at the same time, but they keep these words completely separate within their inner thought process. Until now, many parents worried that exposing their child to multiple languages would lead to confusion and frustration. However, with this new data, parents should rest assured that their child will actually benefit from bilingualism. Further research conducted at Northwestern University provides additional support for the benefits of bilingualism in children, some of which include:

• Improved attention to detail
• Ability to focus on important details
• Early onset of conflict management skills
• Improved memory
• Improved executive control
• Protection against certain illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease
• Lessening of symptoms associated with cognitive decline
• Improved social skills
• Reduced stress
• Reduced risk for depression

Original article: http://voxxi.com/2013/07/16/bilingual-children-cognitive-health-stress/

Additional research information: http://ijb.sagepub.com/content/16/4/369.full.pdf+html