America leads the world in many areas, but one of those areas is not language learning. The Summer Institute of Linguistics says that around two-thirds of the world’s children are bilingual. In the United States, though, only 17% of children can speak any other language but English. In fact, in a lot of countries, mandatory foreign language study begins for students by the age of eight. Most American students who study a foreign language don’t start until they are in their junior or senior year of high school!
It may seem like a daunting task to think about teaching your child something like Spanish, or any other foreign language. But there are many options for homeschool Spanish curriculum, Spanish for preschoolers, and even Spanish story book sets that can make it a whole lot easier than it might seem. Not only is it possible to teach your child a second language, though; it’s also essential. Read on for five important reasons that something like preschool Spanish lessons could change your child’s life for the better.
- Make your child’s brain develop faster and better. Learning a second language is hard work, so mastering it requires the brain to develop different cognitive patterns. When learning any language, whether the first or a second, this process is far easier and faster the younger the learner is. Spanish for preschoolers can actually make them smarter in the long run.
- Your child will become more empathetic. Languages reflect the cultures from which they were born. Learning to speak in another language allows us to see things from someone else’s perspective. In fact, it requires us to do so in order to grasp the meaning of what is said to us in a foreign language. This means your Spanish storybook is doing more than just entertaining your child. It’s making her a more empathetic and understanding person and developing her ability to get along with others. This is in addition to giving her the ability to understand what people from another culture are actually saying!
- Learning a language can help prevent dementia. If you are a parent to a preschooler, you probably aren’t thinking right now about his old age. But you should be. There are studies that show people who speak a second language on a regular basis delay all kinds of age-related dementia and Alzheimer’s by an average of 4.5 years over those who only speak one language.
- It opens up more career opportunities for your child. Increasingly, speaking a second or even third language is a huge boost to a job application. There are jobs in government, business, translation, tourism, and even in healthcare and education that demand people who can communicate effectively in more than one language. Getting your child a Spanish for preschoolers course may just be one of the best things you can do for their future career.
- It helps your child be a better thinker. As automation takes over our world and robots and machines are able to do more and more service jobs, humans are increasingly valued for their creativity and ingenuity. These are skills machines cannot mimic, and one of the best ways to help a child develop an ingenious and creative mind is to teach them a second language. The same skills needed to understand language and words from different perspectives also help a child’s brain become more creative in other ways.
One of the best things you can ever do for your child is to make sure he or she is learning a second language as early as possible. The earlier you start, the easier it will be for them. Look into Spanish for preschoolers, or other language programs that can give your child a head start in life.