02.28.11

More confirmation that bilingualism is good for you!

I have mentioned several times in articles and talks the mounting evidence that children raised and educated in two or more languages enjoy numerous cognitive benefits over their monolingual peers. These benefits do not only include the ease with which you can order your meal in a foreign city, or collaborate with fellow workers across the globe, but are also said to include a more ‘nimble’ brain, better creative problem solving skills, better tolerance of uncertainty and so on.

There is also emerging research into how bilingualism may make the brain more resistant to the onset of degenerative brain diseases. The media picked the following story up over the last few days, and I thank parents for bringing this to my attention.

(Source 2/22/11) http://www.suite101.com/content/research-bilingualism-significantly-delays-alzheimersdisease-a351405

Those who speak two languages, or more, and become stricken with Alzheimer’s Disease have cognitive impairment lessened and cope better with Alzheimer’s. A study from the University of York in Toronto which found that knowing a second language is a significant benefit in the fight against Alzheimer’s Disease was presented at the annual meeting of the ‘American Association for the Advancement of Science’ in Washington D.C. on Feb. 18, 2011.

Originally published in November of 2010 in the journal Neurology, the study, “Delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease: Bilingualism as a form of cognitive reserve” suggests that knowing more than one language significantly delays the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. The study says it delays the onset, on average, by five years.

The study looked at the data of 450 patients who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, with half bilingual and half speaking only one language. They took into account age at time of the diagnosis, work history and educationas well as language history.

The researchers, lead by Dr. Ellen Bialystok, found that those who spoke two languages had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, on average, four years later than those who spoke only one language. Further, for the bilingual people symptoms did not occur until five years further on than they did for those who spoke only one language.

Please refer to the link to read the complete article.

This entry was written by David Garner, filed under About ISI, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Comments are closed, but you can leave a trackback: Trackback URL.