Allyson Kennett
Bilingual Kids
Surprising Benefits of Language Immersion Emotional intelligence (EQ)
the five main characteristics of an emotionally intelligent person are selfawareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. SEL refers to the process of developing emotional self-awareness, self-control and interpersonal skills (empathy for others) so children can succeed in school and beyond.
Maria Polinsky, Professor of Linguistics at Harvard University, explains that bilingual children develop more cognitive control than monolingual children. By constantly switching back and forth between two languages while filtering out distractions, bilingual children tend to be creative, critical thinkers who are better problem-solvers.
Abbie DiTommaso, a local San Diego mother of three, sends her 5-year-old son to an in-home French-immersion kindergarten program, which he has attended since preschool. “My husband speaks French fluently and has always loved that he can connect with people who are different from him,” DiTommaso says. “As we became parents, we looked into other benefits of learning languages and were excited to see emotional intelligence and cultural competency listed among them. For our son, it’s meant working on awareness of how others feel and using social and context clues to figure out a situation.”
has been a focus for parents for several decades and while social-emotional learning (SEL) has been around just as long, it became a hot topic in the last few years. But did you know that a great way to foster both EQ and SEL in children is by helping them learn a second language?
So, what is EQ and SEL exactly? According to Daniel Goleman, a renowned psychologist credited with helping bring the term “emotional intelligence” into the mainstream,
20 • SanDiegofamily.com • February 2022
Parents may worry that learning another language so young would be confusing for children still trying to master a first language. On the contrary, the first five years of a child’s life is the best time to learn a second language. While children in bilingual households may start speaking a few months behind monolingual counterparts, bilingual children will not only catch up, they are likely to surpass monolingual peers in language skills. A four-year study of language immersion students in the state of Oregon conducted by teacher and researcher, Jennifer Steele, Ed.D., found many bilingual immersion students reading a full grade level ahead of monolingual peers. When studying a second language, children learn about how languages work; literacy skills are enhanced because there’s a link between learning another language and English literacy development.
cont. on p.16
