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A growing body of research points to the importance of bilingualism in modifying children’s development. Bilingual children develop vocabulary and grammar in each language differently from monolingual speakers of that language and also show differences in how language is processed. The most dramatic differences, however, are in the enhanced development of executive control by bilingual children, especially for nonverbal tasks. I will review evidence describing these outcomes and provide a framework for interpreting them. Finally, these findings regarding children’s development will be situated in a lifespan perspective showing the persistent effect of bilingualism throughout life.
This research is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).
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