Are there any drawbacks to learning a second language at an early age?
One of the most common misconceptions about early language learning is that children will talk later or less than they would have if spoken to in just one language. However, there is no scientific evidence to show that hearing two, three, or more languages leads to delays or disorders. Monolingual and bilingual children begin to babble, to say their first words, and to speak their first two- and three- word mini- sentences at about the same time. In fact, many, many children throughout the world grow up with two or more languages from infancy without showing any signs of language delays or disorder. This is true across different languages, for young children and for older children. Learning two languages is not a cause of language delay. Many parents also express concern that their child might become confused by the use of two languages. We hear that quite frequently from parents. The main worry is that young children might not be aware of the presence of two different language systems
