[MarkL]

I've got a cousin who married a Spaniard (they met in Geneva, and he's now a US citizen), and they had 2 children, a boy and a girl. They raised them to be bilingual. At first, the husband would only speak Spanish to them, while my cousin would only speak English to them. As they were growing up, they would only speak English to their mom, and Spanish to their dad, even if he spoke in English, they'd still answer in Spanish! Eventually they figured out to speak the language spoken to them, but I always thought it was hilarious.

As to whether it helps with brain development, it certainly didn't hurt them any. Both kids took SATs (a year apart) and both got perfect scores. She graduated from Penn and went on to Georgetown for political science. He graduated from Stanford and is in med school now (I believe at UCLA).

I wish I was as smart as these kids.

Mark

[Former Fetus]

When my daughter was in k-5, the teacher questioned whether she was ready to learn to read and write. We gave her this demo: I would dictate a grocery shopping list in English and she would write it in the board in Spanish. It left the teacher speechless!