Why do some children learn language so much faster than others? Are girls faster than boys? And does learning two languages slow you down? A recent study of 1001 0-4-year-old children across 12 countries, living in very different places from cities to subsistence farming communities, provides some much needed answers.
Contrary to expectations
Contrary to expectations, girls are not faster than boys. Children learning more than one language at once are not slower than those learning only one. And the level of your parents’ education doesn’t matter.
Take home message: chat with your children
What does matter is talking with children - for every 100 extra utterances they heard, the children produced an extra 27 themselves. So whoever you are, wherever you are, have a chat with your kids.
