Teaching children a foreign language has many benefits for the development of their intelligence. The earlier your child learns a foreign language, the better their intake ability will be. Unfortunately, many people think that teaching foreign languages early can cause children to experience speech delay and academic disorders. Is that true?

Myths about Bilingual Children

Nowadays, many parents teach their children more than one language (bilingual) since they are toddlers. Learning a foreign language from an early age can train your child's socialization and communication skills. However, there are many myths surrounding teaching children two or more languages that make parents hesitant to teach their children a foreign language.

Myths about bilingual children that many parents believe include causing:

Speech Delay

One of the most widely believed myths about teaching a second language in addition to the mother tongue is that it increases the risk of speech delay in children. Speech delay is a child's delay in conveying something, in this case through speech. Speech delay children are characterized by difficulty imitating sounds, not responding to speech, and preferring to use gestures to respond to speech. 

In fact, teaching children a foreign language other than their mother tongue does not cause speech delay. According to Healthline, speech delay is caused by mouth shape disorders, hearing loss in children, nerve disorders, and tongue and palate problems. 

Although language delay is common in speech-delayed children, it does not mean that bilingual children will definitely experience speech delay. Language delay is mainly caused by a lack of stimulation when learning a foreign language.

To be sure, you can increase language stimulation using songs, music, games, and daily conversation. A child with a speech delay will show delays in both their mother tongue and the foreign language they are learning. If the language delay is only seen in one type of language he is learning, it is likely that he is experiencing a lack of stimulus.

Confusion

When teaching children a foreign language, you may hear them mixing their native language with the language they are just learning. This is a normal phenomenon in the learning process and does not mean the child is confused. As they get older, children begin to be able to sort out which is their mother tongue and which is a foreign language. At the age of 4 years when their language skills are getting better, they will speak more fluently in the language they master and rarely mix languages or vocabulary.

Academic and intelligence problems

One of the concerns of parents in teaching foreign languages to children is that children will experience academic problems and will have difficulty learning other foreign languages. However, as reported by Healthy Children, teaching children foreign languages early on can actually improve children's ability to solve problems and other cognitive abilities.

Many think that teaching children foreign languages early on will affect children's academic and cognitive abilities. But experts actually reveal that teaching children foreign languages early on benefits their intelligence. If your child shows signs of language delay or speech delay, you should immediately consult a doctor. 

If you need medical advice or consultation, you can either visit a doctor or make use of the consultation features that are available in the Ai Care application by downloading the Ai Care application from the App Store or Play Store.

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