Bilingual babies learn words different
Bilingual babies learn in a different way
What is the difference in learning method? Bilingual babies focus on learning as many words as possible, monolingual babies focus on the small details of the words they learn.
Bilingual babies develop a strategy that they will focus their cognitive energies on associating words with with concrete objects. Two words for each object. They spend less brain resources focusing on details of the sounds and differentiating the sounds of similar words. Monolingual babies focus more closely on constant sounds and phonetic differentiation of sounds.
The net result is Monolingual babies learn words in their one language at a faster rate, by a few months, they pass language learning milestones faster. However, if you account for the total words learn, bilingual babies are at least even to the monolingual babies.
Further, the bilingual babies’ strategy of not focusing on the details of consonants sounds, does not have a major impact on their overall language skill; therefore, the trade off is more than worth it.
Read more ‘Using Speech Sounds to Guide Word Learning: The Case of Bilingual Infants’ from Child Development by Werker, Byers-Heinlein and Fennell.
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