In America, from the 40s and well into the 80s, a lot of useful information on the topic of taking care of children, was made available to parents and caregivers via Dr. Benjamin Spock’s The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, who became a sort of ‘guru’ on the subject and people used his book almost like a ‘bible’ when approaching any hurdle with their offspring.
Though Dr. Spock was an intelligent and reputable paediatrician, he did have some professional opinions which I in particular do not agree with, one of which is the topic of multi-lingual children’s struggle with learning. Because of Dr. Spock’s view/opinion on this subject, thousands of immigrant families in America abandoned their native tongue – believing that their children would not be able to develop to their full potential, due to the ‘handicap’ of having to deal with two languages at a time – and only spoke in English… broken English at best, but definitely only English. In the 90s, in research conducted at the University of California Berkeley, a study confirmed that in the development years (0 – 7) children are capable of learning up to seven languages, at the same level of a mother tongue. Though initially children struggle with having to handle multiple languages, but eventually they master all and retain them – with practice – for life.
