Does Teaching Italian Build Better Brains?
Will teaching Italian to toddlers make them more intelligent? Scientists have been studying the brains of today’s youngest language learners, and their research presents some intriguing results. Recent studies from the field of educational neuroscience, involving functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and other state-of-the-art technology, are changing how we think about the bilingual brain. The neurological effects of teaching kids Italian, it seems, will help keep their minds as healthy and fresh as the best Tuscan cuisine – for years and years to come. Teaching Italian increases “grey matter” in young bilingual brains Nature reported a groundbreaking study in 2004 showing that bilingual children develop increased density of “grey matter” in their brains, compared to children who speak only one language. Though increased grey matter has been linked to higher intelligence, the researchers fell short of concluding that teaching Italian to kids automatically boosts their IQ. Howev
