It turns out that young children who are exposed to more than one language from an early age not only gain significant advantages cognitively, but also in their ability to communicate.
The most novel finding is that the children do not even have to be bilingual themselves; it is the exposure to more than one language that is the key for building effective social communication skills.
According to a recent study by researchers at the University of Chicago, it’s the “early socio-linguistic experiences” that have the greatest potential to “… hone children’s skills at taking other people’s perspectives and provide them tools for effective communication.”
The key here is the word “exposure.” Not immersion. Not acquisition. Simply exposure.
This is particularly exciting to us here at Kindermusik because we’re all about exposure to other languages through music sung in other languages and from other cultures all around the globe. A child who begins Kindermusik classes as an infant will not only have a rich musical foundation by the time he or she finishes the Kindermusik program at around age 7, he or she will also have been repeatedly exposed to a vast variety of music from around the world.
Language is social… Being exposed to multiple languages gives you a very different social experience, which could help children develop more effective communication skills.
Music, in any language, is truly a beautiful thing to experience.
