Putting your children in touch with a second language while they are young gives them the chance to make the most of their learning potential, helping to shape the brain at its most flexible stage. Young children are especially suited to learning a second language. Learning a second language at a young age is as easy as learning a first language.

Young children can acquire native fluency as easily as learning to walk. While adults have to work through the molds of their main language, studying grammar and practicing drills, the young kids learn naturally, absorbing the sounds, structures, music and rules of a second language in the same way as they did their mother tongue. The young brain is flexible, especially equipped to get language naturally.

Some parents worry that starting their young child on a second language will hurt their learning English. This is not true. Children can tell the difference between two languages within the first weeks of life; learning another language actually increases overall verbal development.

Not only is there no disadvantage for a child to learn another language, there are cognitive and linguistic benefits for children who learn another language. These beneficial outcomes lead to lifelong personal and social advantages.

COGNITIVE BENEFITS:
Children who learn a language young go on to show increased ability with imagining and explaining spatial relations, problem solving, stronger overall communications skills, and performance in basic skills in elementary school. Numerous reports have proven that students who have studied a foreign language perform much better than their classmates on many standardized tests. Reports show that students with four or more years of foreign language study score on average higher in critical reading, writing, and even Math than students with half a year or less experience with a second language. Learning a second language early on encourages flexible thinking and communication skills, helping children consider issues from more than one perspective.

Additionally, research shows that children who know more than one language have better memory, planning, and multi-tasking skills. When learning more than one language while young, the child\’s brain is gets used to paying attention to relations, differences, and comparisons. All this aids creativity and problem solving .
LINGUISTIC BENEFITS:
Older learners lose the ability to hear and reproduce new sounds by age eight to twelve. This results in a permanent foreign accent in any language. Adults can improve their accent but it requires work. To learn more of this see: www.GoodAccent.com . Younger learners benefit from flexible ear and speech organs that can perceive the critical differences between the sounds of a second language, and reproduce them correctly.

LIFE SKILLS BENEFITS:
Young learners of another language enrich their lives and open up doors to their future by gaining an expanded world view, increased appreciation of other cultures, and increased competitiveness in the global market. Furthermore, for children, the feeling of accomplishment that comes with progress in a second language can inspire them on to a deeper and broader love of learning in general.

SUMMARY:
Early childhood is the best time to learn a language. Ease of learning a second language goes down with age. Between birth and puberty the brain is designed to acquire language naturally. With puberty, the nature of language learning and storage changes, becoming less flexible.

Learning a new language at any age is an exciting undertaking. Learning as a child delivers the most benefits and opportunities.

Children understand on their own that language is something special. They observe how the adults that surround them respond to their first words and sentences. They learn how to point to their eyes, nose, ears, and tummy. The kids enjoy exploring, exploiting, and expressing their new language. Their enthusiasm is not only a pleasure for us adults, it is a constant effective learning process for them.

Author Bio: Frank Gerace Ph.D teaches English in a New York CUNY college. He helps with accent reduction and the American English accent at http://www.GoodAccent.com . He offers resources to Hispanic learners of English at http://www.InglesParaLatinos.com . He recommendss resources in htttp://www.GoodAccent.com/accentbooks.htm

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Keywords: language for kids, second language, ESL, children and language, kids learn language, teach kids