Why Multilingual People Have Sharper Minds

People who have the ability to speak two or more languages have greater cognitive advantages over those who know only one. Brain scans show that polyglots have more grey matter than monolinguals. The brain’s grey matter functions as an information processor, containing most of the brain’s neurons responsible for vision, hearing, memory, emotions, muscle control, decision making, language, and self-control.

A study by the Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington DC reveals that knowing two languages forces the brain to exercise more cognitive control in using these languages correctly; hence the increase in grey matter. More cognitive control translates to increased memory power, improved creativity and problem-solving abilities, better spatial skills, and the like.

It is interesting however to point out that somehow sign language does not seem to count as a language with its own vocabulary. No volume difference in the brain imagery was discerned between strict monolinguals and monolinguals who have the added knowledge of sign language.

The Benefits of Knowing More than One Language

Aside from having social and career advantages, being able to speak to two or more languages can signal that one may be a little bit smarter or more mentally agile than his one-language-only peers.

Stronger Memory and Learning Power

It takes learning, memorizing, and remembering a lot of vocabulary, nuances, and grammatical structures to build up a fluency in a certain language. Such a feat requires fast learning and the ability to retain what one has learned. Multilingual speakers task their brains more when they need to use the right words as they have to shift to different grammatical rules, culture, and context in order to communicate in the language they choose to speak. It can be expected then of polyglots to possess better working memory than monolinguals.

Multitasking Savvy

Polyglots are more adept at multitasking than monolingual people. A bilingual or multilingual person is endowed with the enviable skills of switching efficiently between two languages differing in words, meanings, and sentence structures. Switching rapidly between two or more languages drives the brain to focus on the task at hand in order to avoid errors and to communicate efficiently. This innately practiced ability lends the multilinguist better capabilities at multi-tasking which requires unerring focal transitions between different tasks at hand.

Divergent Thinking

Polyglots tend to exhibit more divergent thinking than their one-language peers. Divergent thinking “opens your mind in all directions.” This means a divergent thinker looks for outside-the-box options, options that are not apparent or predetermined. It is looking at a problem at different angles and coming up with different solutions. Divergent thinking then is a mark of creativity and above average problem-solving skills.

A 2012 Iranian study gathered a group of 16-18 year old Iranian students. Part of this group was bilingual (the students have learned English for six years); the rest only spoke their own language. Researchers made sure that the participants had common factors such as IQ and social status, making the only difference in the two groups, knowledge of more than one language. Using the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), researchers found firm results that the bilingual group outperformed the monolingual one in all areas of the test which assessed four areas: flexibility, originality, fluency, and elaboration.

The scientists concluded that the findings were such because polyglots need to be more alert in order to prevent one language with its own set of rules and vocabulary to be confused with the other language/s. Hence, bilinguals and multilinguals are adept at switching focus between tasks, ignoring distractions, and remembering newly learned information. In addition, when people learn a new language, they are exposed to the culture, nuances, and perspectives of the country they are learning about. These often novel and out-of-the-ordinary information, coupled with their own experience, gain them newer perspectives by which to view the world. Polyglots then garner more creative thoughts and better analytical abilities because of their higher divergent thinking capabilities over that of monolinguals.

Cognitive Advantage in Old Age

Because language knowledge is dynamic (new vocabulary, idioms, etc.), speaking more than one language is a highly stimulating activity for the brain. Stimulating mental activity can prevent or delay the onset of dementia. If one is predisposed to Alzheimer’s disease, the symptoms can be significantly delayed by as much as five years.

Learning another language or becoming bilingual could benefit one more than just being able to understand or converse with other language speaking people. Sure learning your grandmother’s German can be tough; but, being fluent in more than one language can condition your mind to become sharper, more creative, and more flexible in thought. What’s more, you get to add to your skill set, raising your career potentials.

Keep those mental gears rolling. It is never too late to learn and earn a new tongue.

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Why Young Children Need Immersion in Creative Arts

Art has long been relegated on the backburner of “useful” school subjects and worthwhile pursuits, in terms of intellectual and profitable skills advancement. Art has occupied the lowly category of simply the hobby of self entertainment, not so much as a high echelon occupation with developmental or competitive value. It is fortunate however that in the last few decades, educators, psychiatrists, and scientists have begun to realise the creative process as a valuable tool in early childhood development.

While reading, math, and science stimulates the logical and analytical left side of the brain, art rouses the intuitive, creative, and imaginative right hemisphere. To achieve a balance, both cerebral hemispheres need to be trained and work synergistically for a child’s optimal development.

This may be why children exposed to the artistic process acquire an added advantage over children who have not been immersed regularly in such. Contrary to the popular notion that arts education is not geared toward solving problems, achieving academic excellence, or advancing social and civic engagement, studies have revealed that the arts open a child towards these very achievements.

Young children immersed in creative arts tend to develop the following advantages:

Better Cognitive Skill Development and Out-of-the-Box Thinking

Cognitive skills involve memory, focus, decision making, learning, language abilities, perception, and the like. These skills are crucial for a person to carry out tasks from the simplest to the most complex. The whole process of cognition makes up how an individual understands the world and reacts to it. When cognition skills start failing, so does one’s ability to function properly and effectively in most areas of life.

Art sharpens cognitive skills. Painting, moulding play dough, and cutting out shapes helps little kids to use their perceptive abilities to gauge colour, size, and shape of things. Mixing colours and experimenting on brush strokes teaches them cause and effect. As children are given free rein over their work, they are encouraged to make decisions... “”Do I colour the sky green to make it different or stick to reality with blue?;” “Would yellow flowers make this scene prettier or would pink stars look better?” Every time a child engages in creative arts, he plans, experiments, and problem solves while using his imagination as well. The creative process influences him to plan what to make, dabble in ways on how to present his concept, and coaxes him to analyse how to rectify mistakes. In this manner, young children develop that valuable ability of thinking out of the box, using imagination and analytical skills.

Development of Motor Skills

Motor skill development is important in early childhood development. Scissor and paint brush handling for instance advances fine motor dexterity of the hands. This can prepare them early to learn the necessary skill of writing.

Better Chances for Academic Achievement

A study spanning ten years by Stanford University of the U.S. revealed that young kids involved in a regular arts based community program were:

• 4x more likely to garner an academic achievement
• 3x more likely to have high scores in school attendance
• 8x more likely to gain a civic award
• 4x more likely to join in math or science fairs
• More likely to reap high SAT scores for college admissions if they have more than 4 years of arts immersion outside school

Improved Odds for Children to Be Achievers

Michigan State University researchers have found a strong link between arts-immersed children and their measurable achievements in their adult life. Because the arts encourages creativity, innovation, and out-of-the-box thinking, children with varied arts exposure were more likely to become inventors of patentable products, innovative entrepreneurs, or provocative writers. The research involved studying scientists and according to the research’s co-authors Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein, “The most eminent and innovative among them are significantly more likely to engage in arts and crafts avocations” than the average person would.

It’s the Process That Counts

Creative arts education is not some frivolous endeavour young children can do without. Education is not complete without creative arts training. Children do not need to be inherently artistic, but they need to be trained in the creative process. The process of creating art is what allows the child to learn what other traditional academic subjects cannot instil.

Art imposes a tremendous developmental impact on children’s minds as it helps them gain better critical thinking abilities, cultural and social awareness, personal confidence, and sound mental health.

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Boosting Your Motivation Towards Success

Many people have goals but few have the motivation and the smarts to reach them. Fewer still have the mental tenacity to claim their goals. Do you have what it takes to be a success?

To find out, you must be clear on what motivates you, what can hinder that motivation, and the possible ways to work around foreseeable obstacles.

What Makes You Tick?

Motivation is that strong desire or interest to behave or do something in a certain way that would bring them towards achieving their goal. It is what keeps one’s interest and commitment to do things on the premise that such invested perseverance would lead them toward an end-goal fulfilment.

Does being in the roster of the top five fittest of a national Crossfit Throwdown been your personal goal? Bagging the bragging rights of being one of the best athletes in the country is your motivation to push yourself daily to improve your endurance, strength, and flexibility.

Motivation however can be derailed or even crushed when perceived insurmountable obstacles come its way. What can one do then to overcome a motivational decline and keep right on track towards success? In other words, what can beef up your mental tenacity towards goal achievement?

Bumping Up Your Motivation

Be Clear on Why You Want Your Goal

You want something but you are not clear if it’s worth all the bother. You want the trophy but just how much and why is it so important? Muddied reasons to these questions do not set you on a clear rainbow towards that pot of gold. Knowing the basis of your motivation will help you improve your mental toughness to keep on looking ahead. For instance, discovering that your motivation is actually fuelled by fear (fear of displeasing someone, fear of not belonging, etc.), will help you decide whether your end goal is actually worth all your time and effort.

Being clear on why achieving something has become your dream will help you acquire that extra mental push to face and surmount looming obstacles that inevitably fall on anyone’s path to real success.

Cultivate a “Solve the Puzzle” Attitude

When faced with a mountain of an obstacle, people simply look up to the top and imagine an arduous, almost impossible climb to get to the other side, enough to dampen most people’s gung-ho spirits. If you are not most people, however, you may choose to follow the motivational patterns of a Mt. Everest climber or be the smarter guy: find a way around the problem. Think out of the box or adopt the patience of a Rubik’s cube puzzle solver. Either way, you are most likely to get to the other side.

Your realities are what you think it is. If you think something is impossible, it will be. Tweak that thought into positive possibles and the probabilities for success will suddenly loom so much more real and attainable.

Build the Present

Look toward the future for the attainment of your goals; but, pour your attention on the present. The future will inevitably come but the present is what you will make of it. The present is what you have right now so make the most of it.

Be mindful of what you do now because every passing moment is all what you have to build on. Learn from your present experiences and interactions and...

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.” - Eckhart Tolle, ‘The Power of Now’

Learn to Ask for Help

The way to success can veer into an advantageous shortcut if one can just learn to put pride or shyness away and ask for the right help. No one individual can know everything; so two heads, three...a hundred are so much more effectively helpful in getting to the endgame than going all solo.

Getting your dream may need you to give credit where credit is due. As the trite saying goes, “No man stands alone.” Well, unless he chooses to be...which gets him nowhere.

Choose the Company You Keep

People who get you down or always dwell on the negative belong to the wrong sort crowd to hang with if you are after goal achievement. If you can help it, ditch these toxic types and try to find like-minded persons with the same go-getter mentality as you have. This way, you can motivate each other towards your own successes.

If you cannot help but be stuck to family members with a crab mentality, the best way around the problem is to set boundaries as best as you can or simply say little about what you are doing. You will get enough doubts along the road to your goal. You do not need more naysayers to affirm these. What you need is a cheering squad that will push you on toward the finish line.

As long as you have a clear goal in sight, take care not to lose that motivation. Keep in mind that success is a mind game. You get what you believe you can.

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How to get Kids to be Fruit and Veggie Eaters

Let’s face it. When given a choice between a succulent steak and fresh, colourful salad, bet you would make a beeline for that juicy hunk of beef. Kids would too because who wants to munch on lettuce leaves when a steak or a mac n’ cheese just hits that hungry spot?

As parents, we know the value of a good diet which unfortunately means lots of fruits and veggies. Growing kids may know the same thing from school lectures and your incessant admonitions to “Eat your broccoli, son;” but knowing nutrition values versus actually wanting to eat those values are whole worlds apart. Knowing that kids need good portions of plant food everyday in their diet, it’s quite a challenge to convince a stubborn little carnivore to transform into a healthier omnivore without fighting a food war. And in most cases, parents mostly lose the food battle.

So how to get kids to eat their fruits and veggies? Perhaps these tips could help:

Be a Role Model

You can’t expect your children to believe that peas and carrots are great food for them when you don’t eat them yourself. Change your diet ways if you want your kids to follow suit. Clean out that larder of chips and soda and restock with healthy vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and high fibre foods. Not only will your family eat healthier; your waistline will thank you for it.

Keep Serving ‘Em Up

Usually children say no to food they have just met at the table. They don’t bother to get to know new food first before they form their gustatory opinion. “That green stuff Mom calls broccoli is as green as those awful tasting spinach leaves she made me try last week. Broccoli must be yucky too.”

According to research, children can be conditioned to like a food or at least give it a chance when they have seen it served at least 8 to 15 times. As a vegetable becomes a familiar sight at the table, children can drop their reservations enough to be curious about it. So, serve up that broccoli every week and eat your servings. Your kids are bound to come around soon.

Establish the “One Bite Rule”

To tamp down constant rejections, implement the “One Bite Rule” that requires the child to get one good mouthful of a fruit or vegetable served in a meal, whether these have been former rejections or a newcomer to the table. Who knows, your little fussy eater may just suddenly like that “bad-tasting” fruit or veggie. If not, perhaps it may just be constant exposure to it that can wear down his palate’s resistance.

Stick of course to the one bite rule. Don’t force three mouthfuls down when the rule clearly states one bite. The aim here is to gradually help the child adjust to the taste and texture of fruits and veggies. Making them eat what they clearly do not like or are not ready to like may let you win that food battle but will definitely cost you that war.

Get Them Involved with Their Food

Children often feel they don’t have a choice; so giving them options is like giving them some control over what they wish to eat. Bring them with you to the market or grocery and make them choose what they want at the produce section. Just letting them have a choice of their fruit and vegetable could very well lend a special interest towards their pick.

Get your children involved in preparing the salad, steaming the carrots, or cutting up bananas. Vegetable or fruit dishes prepared by their own labours will seem especially delicious to your little ones.

An even better idea is to get into vegetable gardening with your kids. If they see the wonders of a growing tomato, what’s not to like?

Keep Fruits and Veggies Very Accessible

Kids are usually hungry and tend to choose food they can grab on the go. Keep bananas, apples, and other fruit in a bowl within kids’ easy reach. Keep celery and carrot sticks very visible and accessible on the refrigerator shelf. Maybe the added sight of a cheese dip may just entice them to choose these veggie stick snacks over a cookie, which by the way, shouldn’t even be seen if you want your fruit and veggie campaign to work.

Sneak The Spinach In

When all else fails because your kid happens to have an extremely stubborn I-hate-veggies streak (perhaps inherited...Tee hee!), it’s time to get sneaky. Hide the veggies in food by blending them into pasta sauce, soups, and even in cupcakes. Whole fruits can be transformed into yummy cold smoothies or sorbets. Use your creativity to get those much needed nutrients in while working on your kids’ vegetarian leanings.

Whatever you do, don’t throw in the towel. Patiently expose your children to healthy food without forcing them. It just takes some time for kids to develop the taste for eating a variety of fruits and vegetables.

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Making Lasting Lifestyle Changes for the New Year

It’s a brand new year, a bugle call to many for starting over or making some changes. If you are one of the 42% of Australians who make New Year’s resolutions each year, you are on the right track. You are galvanized right now for some change; but this time, let’s see how we can make those resolutions stick, shall we?

In order to do this, let us think of resolutions as lifestyle changes, instead of a short-term once-a-year project that usually peters out after a few months. Changing to good habits from bad is always a worthy goal, one that deserves to be a lifetime modification. In this case, take these steps when starting out on one of your resolutions:

Start Small

Losing weight, quitting smoking, starting an exercise program, and even spending more time with the family are resolutions that require discipline and time management. Moreover, these big goals require making significant lifestyle changes. For instance, losing weight, a resolution which tops the list of each New Year’s fervent promises, demands changes in one's eating, sleeping, and moving habits. For most people, these are radical changes that, lacking good planning and an iron will, are bound to be abandoned when the going gets even slightly tough.

The solution to achieving that coveted six-pack is to start small. Make a long-term plan. It may span the year or even beyond. Then write down specific goals. Break big ones into achievable monthly ones. Perhaps the first goal for the month may be to limit your sugar intake by ditching desserts and soda. By this small change alone, you could lose significant weight. When you’ve been rewarded by a dip in the scales, perhaps you could start taking brisk walks 20 minutes a day. The combination of limited sugar intake and increased movement should allow more weight reduction and improved energy levels. When you have got these habits down pat, try to aim for an early-to-bed-early-to-rise routine. All these changes should pave the way for setting up of more goals, achievements of which are simply layered on through time in order to arrive at the main goal--- a svelte, toned new you with a whole new set of healthy habits ingrained for life.

Limit Your To-Do’s

Don’t try to do too many goals at once. Changing habits for the better usually works when done incrementally; although, if you’re the type who needs a radical change to stop bad habits, then by all means take your big goal by the horns. Still, try to limit the number of goals. The best scenario is to concentrate on one goal or resolution because the most important thing here is not to make many promises but to achieve at least one good lifestyle change.

Be Realistic

Now this is a toughie. We want the whole pie but we often can only get a sliver. Making a New Year’s resolution to look and be as strong as Ronda Rousey by the end of the year is sure to get you to swear off resolutions forever. This kind of goal demands years of physical and mental training, dedication, and sacrifice, not something achievable in a year or on a mindset of simply wanting to lose weight and feel great.

Instead, be happy with a realistic sliver of a pie first and then work from there. If weight loss is your resolution, aim for a 30-pound-lighter-you who can run a 5k in decent time by the time December rolls in. Now this may be an achievable goal and one that will make a healthier, more self-assured version of you by year’s end. When the next year rolls by, perhaps you’ll be dipping your toes in triathlons, who knows? But first things first. Think about it.

Be Flexible

Nothing is perfect and so are situations in life. You are likely to fall off the good habit horse at one time or another. If you do, don’t beat yourself up about it or worse, quit while you are already gaining some ground. Just get back on the saddle, and try again. You may be set back from your goal but a little perseverance will get you right back on track. This is why you set your goals and plan your actions with some flexibility. Because life gets in the way...many times.

Ask for Support

If you need help, ask. This seems so logical; yet, many people find it difficult to admit that they need help. Sometimes the stress of trying to meet your goal may, at certain points, prove to be overwhelming. Professional help, group support, or even just a good listening ear can make all the difference.

For this new year, think of committing to a better lifestyle, not just a particular aim of say, losing 20 pounds. Instead, incorporate this specific goal of losing this much weight into a broader lifestyle resolution of living healthier for the new year. Ultimately, you will come to expand your lifestyle resolution into the coming years to see a much healthier, stronger, and better person in you.

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