As a mother of three children myself, I often times wonder how these myths take flight and never run out of steam. I remember almost eighteen years ago when my first was born that the rage was natural childbirth and listening to classical music during your pregnancy so that the child would enter our world wired for advanced cognitive abilities.



Then some research experts squelched the in utero theory by saying that it was all hogwash that the child would be able to recognize sounds, voices, and particular pitches. We moms know that just the opposite is true. Our babies do enter our world recognizing our voice, particularly if we sang to them or read to them. They also turn to, and seem to have a certain bond with, those siblings or partners and family members or friends who spoke often to our swollen bellies! Ah, the sweet bliss of everyone wanting to touch our pregnant tummies! An invasion of privacy not normally extended, but then bringing another human being into this life is cause for deviation from the norm.

Enter stage left now, the infant who has received external stimuli in various ways including but not limited to reading, singing, and talking. This little person has a brain so wired to soak in all of the more than six thousand languages of our world. And did you realize that at the tender young age of eleven months that little brain already begins to specialize the manner in which it accepts language? That means, the eleven month old baby has a brain that is already putting different languages and their parts of speech into different compartments in his brain. Prior to that, it all went to one big happy language area!

Enter stage right now, the toddler who is just beginning to babble and all of us moms swear that they are calling our given mommy name first! Does it really matter? Well, yes! After all of those endless nights of nursing or middle of the night feedings and multiple diaper changes, say my thirty for his one, it does really matter that we hear little Junior babble out the mom word before the dad word.

Now here is the scoop, the downright latest information from these guys and gals who sit in some cubicle and write these reports that I base the direction of my company on but swear I could never even begin to approach the technical side of their research driven world: These little toddlers are able to be shown a ball and hear one word for it in their native language, say English and one word for it in the language you have chosen to introduce to her at an early age, say Spanish.

It is so true. Disregard all of those myths that say a child should master her native language first in life and then move on to being introduced to others. We have seen the You Tube clips, we have heard the television reports, and we have read the testimonials of parents who chose to introduce more than just one language to their child since birth. They all substantiate that these toddlers can and will succeed in soaking up the vocabulary for not just one, but two and three languages without showing signs of language delay.

In fact, the exciting truth be told, these little children will far surpass their monolingual peers in early reading skills, later standardized test scores in both math and verbal sections, and experience such advanced cognitive development given the early start in this bilingual lifestyle.

Now I am not saying that you will have to walk around your home with Dora the Explorer on 24/7. Nor am I saying that you yourself need to be fully proficient in the target language you have chosen for you new baby. All I am saying is that, should you make the commitment to give your child a jump start on what is sure to prove a very global economy and culturally diverse society, then you need to be aware of the latest research on this topic and how it dispels some old myths that just need to be put to rest.

We all keep saying we will do something about it next school year or next fiscal year or next back to school time or next summer camp program time. Truth be told, the best time to get to giving your child the jump start on learning a second or third or fourth language is today. The resources are out there. The experts tell you just make it fun and interactive and a part of your daily routine and little Junior will be trading and speaking and laughing and communicating with the best of them.