Thanks to our cosmopolitan way of living and diverse communities, in recent modern times, more and more people can speak two or more languages. You may have noticed, either through personal or your child’s experience, that it’s much easier to grasp knowledge of a foreign language the younger you are. In fact, according to Viorica Marian and PhD Anthony Shook there’s evidence that suggests potential benefits to the cognitive development of children learning a foreign language at a young age.
We came across their study published at Cerebrum, which backed the possible effects that change a child’s brain growth following the introduction of a second language to their home environment.
“Research has shown that the bilingual brain can have better attention and task-switching capacities than the monolingual brain thanks to its developed ability to inhibit one language while using another.” - V. Marian, A.Sock (2012)
Furthermore, it has been widely demonstrated that children speaking two or more languages have superior cognitive skills - the mental activity required to understand, speak, and switch from one language to another has a great impact on other cognitive areas. These benefits however are not only on this cognitive atmosphere - it has also been demonstrated that being able to speak more than one language has a positive impact on social abilities.
Therefore, we now know that raising children bilingually not only makes children smarter and more creative but also gives them tools to be more social. Since exercising their brains from an early childhood helps fight against cognitive decline, learning languages like Spanish is nowadays a popular option for anyone seeking to nurture their kids’ native ability to retain and gain skills while stimulating their linguistic capabilities.
As a bilingual company, the staff at Bilingual Beats can see the effect our educational programme has had firsthand. Boasting a full crew of native Spanish speakers, our tutors and musicians are experts in introducing a foreign language to parents and toddlers in a engaging way that stimulates our little learners’ social abilities. We pride ourselves on seeing success stories like the most timid child in the class opening up and becoming comfortable to learn, sing and dance with our staff at the nurseries.
If that wasn’t enough, your child can also start earning a good structure to learn other Latin-based languages, such as French and Italian. It is also proven to help better understand English due to their shared Latin roots and expand future employment options because it provides you with an early academic advantage as it is the most common second language learnt at schools. Plus, Spain and most Latin American countries are very popular touristic destinations, so it’s always a good idea to give children the opportunity to make friends in those holiday destinations by speaking their language.
At Bilingual Beats we believe that as adults we have an important role in supporting children in developing their hidden innate skills. We provide a stimulating environment for learning to move, talk, think, and socialise, while the little ones learn by experiencing, watching and listening, from a very early age – that’s why we offer Spanish classes for babies – in fact it’s the perfect age to start learning a foreign language!
Another key feature of our lessons is the focus our teams put into not only teaching Spanish, but to also engage in plenty of physical movement along with the music. We encourage children to practice pronouncing words and putting sentences together. Learning the lyrics to a song is an effective way to retain information, apart from being so much fun, plus this is supported by the scientific community too!
A study by Evridiki Zachopoulou, Aggeliki Tsapakidou and Vassiliki Derri proved that basic motor skills development is accomplished by the application of a variety of physical education modules.
Elements like music in particular, have an important role on "improving motor movement, including jumping and dynamic balance", as reported from their research findings.
In our classes we offer opportunities to develop key motor skills by including a lot of movement activities. These include, marching to the music, marching to double the beat /half beats, jumping upbeat, dancing and freezing, staying still and balanced, etc. To develop fine motor skills, we invite children to play instruments with just their fingertips, to move small parts of their body to the rhythm of the music, and much more.
With all of this in mind, we continue to work closely with local nurseries the same way we were since day one, and we are always happy to see our results bloom through the children's positivity and eagerness to take part in our classes. All parents try to give their most loved ones the best start in life, and we are here to help by giving your kid a head start into the bilingual world. Are you interested in seeing more? Click here to try one of our lessons!