Why Do Bilingual Children Have Cognitive Advantages Over Monolingual Children?

Do bilingual children have cognitive advantages over monolingual children?

Bilingualism is defined as the ability of having two different mother-tongue languages, while monolingual refers to a person’s capability to speak one language. In addition, bilingualism occurs when a child’s parents came from different countries, so the child has distinct native languages, or when is grown in a different country, where local language is required to be learn. For instance, 56 percent respondents could speak other languages, except their mother-tongue language (European Commission, 2006). However, there is an argumentative about the cognition of bilingual and monolingual children, whereas it is argued that, bilingual children’s cognition is more developed
On the one hand, there are several advantages when it comes to bilingualism. One of them is that cognitive functions and skills are developed. Since, bilinguals have the ability to manage two different languages at same time, there are some changes in the neurological processing and structure, where brain’s networks work more complicated in comparison with monolingual people. A research indicated that, a brain region, which is called dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), was active when a bilingual person had to switch between two languages. As a consequence, attention, multi-task switching, cognitive flexibility and inhibition skills were improved, since the current brain region is associated with these abilities (Hernandez, Martinez, & Kohnert, 2000). More specifically, working memory, memory capacity and high level of thought are being increased, while attention is being sustained. Thus, other skills, such as multitasking, in linguistic and not linguistic tasks, are being enhanced and inhibition, where irrelevant stimulus are discarded is being improved. Furthermore, bilinguals seems to be more effective in monitory systems, which leads to the induction of that their response is faster rather than monolinguists. For instance, Costa, Hernández,
In addition, it is thought that managing two languages, might work as a shield, since the brain is being continuously honed by thinking in two languages and using a plenty of words and phrases daily. As a result, bilingualism protects the mind of being aging. According to Bialystok, Craik, Klein and Viswanathan (2004), as human-beings grow up there is a cognitive decline, which is known as a cognitive reserve and a decrease in attention and certain executive processes. Thus, Bialystok, Craik, Luk, (2012), pointed out the positive effects of bilingualism to older people. It is observed that, cognitive reserve and dementia symptoms are reduced due to the bilingualism. It is also found that, it maintains the physical and mental health. However, these effects are muted in adulthood years. Therefore, another recent study of Schweizer, Ware, Fischer, Craik and Bialystok (2012) investigated, if bilingual patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) were more or less likely to onset the AD’s symptoms. The findings were that, AD’s symptoms were less likely to be developed to bilingual patients, compared to the monolinguals. Consequently, bilingualism protects the cognitive function of the patients who are predicted to suffer from the AD