Bilingual Kids Show More Creativity

An anonymous reader tips news of a study from researchers at the University of Strathclyde which found bilingual children to be significantly more successful at a set of tasks than children who spoke only one language. "The differences were linked to the mental alertness required to switch between languages, which could develop skills useful in other types of thinking." Lead researcher Fraser Lauchlan said, "Bilingualism is now largely seen as being beneficial to children but there remains a view that it can be confusing, and so potentially detrimental to them. Our study has found that it can have demonstrable benefits, not only in language but in arithmetic, problem solving and enabling children to think creatively. We also assessed the children's vocabulary, not so much for their knowledge of words as their understanding of them. Again, there was a marked difference in the level of detail and richness in description from the bilingual pupils."

Comments

Re:Some people think bilingualism causes confusion

[canadiannomad]

Je ne sais pas que tipo de confusión ce puede causar.......

(It's a joke -- don't mod me down for using alternate languages...)

Uhhhhm, no.

[Kimomaru]

I speak three languages and I'm about as creative as a dialtone. This finding is bogus - Canadians are billingual, why don't they have a space program?

Sounds like the liberal media...

[bennomatic]

...trying to brainwash us into teaching our kids languages other than American!

Re:How about tri-ligual, quad-ligual ?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Actually, I can speak, read and write in 7 languages

And with all that creative power at your disposal, the nickname you chose was Taco Cowboy?