Recent studies have shown that there are "windows of opportunity" for learning certain skills. There is strong evidence that the ability to learn and speak a foreign language is easiest before the age of ten.

Young children learn languages more easily and with greater fluency than older children or even adults.

• Enhances academic and linguistic performance
  in both languages
  
  
• Cognitive advantages -- physically enhances brain development
  
  
• Increases career and social opportunities
  
  
• Expands world view
  
  
• Scores statistically higher on SAT college entrance exams
  
  
• Increases attendance at colleges and universities
  
  
• Improves English language skills
  
  
• Enhances learning capacity for life

When very young children are "immersed" in a language, their brains actually form new neural connections. This strengthens their intellectual "foundation" as well as future academic success.

Numerous studies have shown that in addition to greater appreciation for other cultures, learning a second language also results in academic and developmental advantages. Consider the following findings of cognitive benefits:

* Benefits of a second language include…improved overall school performance and superior problem-solving skills (Bamford & Mizokawa, 1991)

* Students who had studied a foreign language for 4 or more years outscored other students on the verbal and math portions of the SAT (The College Board SAT, 2003)

* Students who were in “rigorous” programs in high school, which included 3 years of foreign language study, were likely to earn better grades in college and less likely to drop out(Horn & Kojaku, 2001)

* Learning another language can enhance knowledge of English structure and vocabulary (Curtain & Dahlberg, 2004)

* Students of foreign languages may have better career opportunities (Carreira & Armengol, 2001)

“Learning other languages altered grey matter – the area of the brain that processes information – in the same way that exercise builds muscles. People who learned a second language at a younger age were also more likely to have advanced grey matter than those who learned later”

Read more about it in this related article: Being Bilingual Boosts Brain Power. BBC News, October 2004

A key linguistic benefit of early language learning is a more native-like speaking ability:

"Early exposure is the best way for a human child to achieve full and equal native fluency in two languages with no accent or grammatical error" (Start Early to Help Your Child Become Bilingual, Pediatrics for Parents, Vol. 20, Iss.10, 2003)

Learning a second language also leads to:

* Enhanced level of English language skills and of metalinguistic awareness, a skill that positively impacts learning to read in any language because it facilitates decoding abilities

* Greater facility in learning additional languages

Rayito de Sol parents prepare their children for a lifetime of success in the multicultural, multilingual world of the twenty-first century.

Minnesota's premier Spanish Immersion Preschool & Language Learning for Children