Bilingual Kids Less Likely To Get Alzheimer’s

Children who grow up speaking at least two languages have less of a chance of developing Alzheimer’s later on in life and are less likely to be easily confused, according to a study from UCLA Professor Jared Diamond. In an article in the Journal “Science,” Diamond’s studies on bilingualism found that, around the world people tend to speak more than one language, and his word suggests that being multilingual helps people focus in confusing situations.

He told the BBC:

“A baby that has been reared bilingually has learned from the age of three months to pay attention to the sounds of Italian and to ignore mummy who speaks Chinese,” he says by way of example. “But if mummy starts speaking, the baby will start paying attention to Chinese sounds and ignore Italian.  An infant reared bilingually has to practice at paying attention which the rest of us don’t.”

On Alzheimer’s Disease, Diamond found that people who spoke more than one language were less likely to develop dementia such as Alzheimer’s, or developed symptoms later in life than their monolingual counterparts.  This is possibly because people who speak more than one language exercise their brains differently, he said.

He told the BBC:

“It would be really powerful if it turned out, as appears to be the case, you get five years of protection from Alzheimer’s by learning another language.  But suppose you’re a Swedish shopkeeper who speaks five languages. You may get 25 years of protection against Alzheimer’s, which means you won’t get it until you’re 102 years old, so you’re not going to get it at all.”

Of course there’s no conclusive evidence of this, Diamond concedes, but on the other hand, you’d best thank your mom and dad for forcing you to answer them in Spanish when you were a kid!