Bilingual adaptations in early development

Dean D'Souza; Hana D'Souza

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2021.06.002

Bilingual adaptations in early development

Trends Cogn Sci. 2021 Sep;25(9):727-729. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.06.002. Epub 2021 Jul 5.

Authors

Dean D'Souza¹, Hana D'Souza²

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Science and Engineering, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK. Electronic address: dean.dsouza@aru.ac.uk.
² Department of Psychology & Newnham College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK.

PMID: 34380045
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.06.002

Abstract

Infants raised in bilingual homes redirect attention faster than infants raised in monolingual homes. How can mere exposure to a bilingual environment affect an infant's cognitive development? The more complex language environment may drive infants to explore (gather more information from) their visual environment to facilitate learning.

Keywords: bilingual; bilingual advantage; cognitive development; exploration–exploitation; infant; language.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Attention
Humans
Infant
Language
Language Development
Learning
Multilingualism*