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New Discoveries From the Bilingual Brain and Mind Across the Life Span: Implications for Education
Author(s) -
Petitto LauraAnn
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
mind, brain, and education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.624
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1751-228X
pISSN - 1751-2271
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-228x.2009.01069.x
Subject(s) - psychology , reading (process) , literacy , neuroscience of multilingualism , developmental psychology , bilingual education , dual language , developmental cognitive neuroscience , socioeconomic status , cognitive psychology , cognition , linguistics , mathematics education , cognitive neuroscience , neuroscience , pedagogy , medicine , philosophy , population , environmental health
We discuss the fruits of educational neuroscience research from our laboratory and show how the typical maturational timing milestones in bilingual language acquisition provide educators with a tool for differentiating a bilingual child experiencing language and reading delay versus deviance. Further, early schooling in two languages simultaneously affords young bilingual children a reading advantage and may also ameliorate the negative effect of low socioeconomic status on literacy. Using powerful brain imaging technology, functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy, we provide a first‐time look into the developing brains of bilingual as comapred to monolingual children. We show unequivocally that the age of first bilingual exposure is a vital predictor of bilingual language and reading mastery. Accounts that promote later dual language and reading instruction, or those that assert human brain development is unrelated to bilingual language mastery, are not supported by the present findings. We discuss the implications for education, teachers, and developmental brain sciences.