When you think back to your preschool days, you recall how much of your fun came from your imagination. Pretending to be something else and experience adventures was completely normal and part of your everyday social interaction. As adults, we look at the experience as innocence and naivete; however, young children possess a gift to learn and retain information more easily, before the adult programming sets in.

Education, including foreign language learning, is much easier for children under ten years of age. This is a time when neural networks are forming. Neural network restructuring is formulated around activities; those that are reinforced will last and those that are not used will fall away. While much of brain function is developed in utero, development continues to be structured around external stimuli as the child grows.

Not only is it easiest to learn a first language during these years; a child can also master a second language while these neural pathways are forming. An immersion language class is especially successful, offering a fun environment of play, games, discussion, activities, and culture appropriate for the age range. Most primary schools will not offer foreign language at this young age and, if they do, the exposure is less intense and memorable.

The Fading of Imagination
But what happens to our imaginations? Do we lose the ability to consider all possibilities because we are trained to accept limitations? Our worlds are the biproducts of our thoughts. When are thoughts flow freely, we experience freedom. As we accept societal norms and limitations, our walls close in and we live within those walls. A child’s imagination facilitates growth and creativity.

Perhaps there are other factors at work here. As we age, our pineal glands become calcified thanks to chemicals in foods we eat and water we drink. It’s quite possible that children see and experience things adults attribute to the imagination yet are experienced through the pineal gland.

Learning when you are older is also more difficult because you are affected by stress, responsibility, distractions, and being set in your ways. If you’ve ever tried to resume learning after being away from it for a few years, you know how difficult it is to focus and remain dedicated, especially if you have already entered the working world.

Introducing our children to other cultures at a young age is a gift that allows them to enrich their learning and develop cognitive skills that will last them a lifetime. Kids with second language education tend to be better at problem solving and socializing with kids from different cultural backgrounds.

Kids grow up quickly and eventually want to spend their extracurricular time with friends. The first few years are opportune for introducing kids to new skills, whether it be foreign language, arts, sciences, mathematics, etc. In person classes are more effective than online classes and offer the chance for them to enjoy socialization while attaining new, useful skills that could last them their lifetimes.