FIU research finds that speaking more than one language can be beneficial for children born prematurely, counter to advice often given by health care professionals.
The study, published in Advances in Neonatal Care, compared two groups who were born preterm: bilingual children and children who only spoke one language. The bilingual group performed better on a cognitive test, showing better organization, accuracy and response time, compared to monolingual children — important skills for academic success.
"The conventional advice provided by health care professionals is not to speak more than one language with children born prematurely," said Caroline Gillenson, lead author and doctoral student in FIU Center for Children and Families (CCF) Clinical Science Program. "Our findings show that shouldn't be the case and that bilingualism could be an early intervention strategy to help strengthen preterm-born children's executive functioning."
