According to a new study from McGill University’s Department of Psychology and Montreal’s Neurological Institute highlighted in a recent article in Time Magazine, it appears that infants lay down separate, persistent neural pathways for each of the languages they are exposed irrespective of whether they go on to speak those languages. Although not confirmed at this stage, the study predicts that children exposed to a language early on in life, even if they don’t use the language, will have an easier time learning that language later in life. While it's early days in this area of research, this study will doubtless act as a marker and motivator to all parents wondering how early they should start in raising children bilingually.

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