ANDRZEJ KRAUZE
For years, doctors and teachers warned bilingual parents not to expose their young children to a second language, for fear they would suffer language confusion and language delays. New research is helping pediatricians and parents better understand the benefits of learning a second language, even for children who have yet to utter their first word.
University of Delaware speech-language pathologist Aquiles Iglesias has helped develop tests to measure whether bilingual children, raised in environments where English and Spanish are used, truly have language delays, or are simply limited in their exposure to English. Pinpointing the difference has long perplexed educators. Iglesias says research now shows conclusively that bilingualism does not cause a language delay in children (Am J Speech-Language Path, 23:574-86, 2014). “If you look ...
