Early Childhood Care and Development

EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT 3(2+1)

Lesson 03: Language development during ECH period

Bilingualism

Bilingual children develop language skills fast compared to those of other children. The best strategy they follow is; at home they use relatively unmixed language, in which one language is associated with one person and the other language with another person. Bilingual children develop language skills in the same order and in the same time frame in the same way as the children exposed to only a single language. Bilingual children have some advantages over other children, although the advantages are not uniform. Both, bilingual children and adults frequently engage in code switching (An alternative use of two or more languages to communicate the ideas).