Language learning helps keep your brain agile!
Language learning has been shown to offer numerous cognitive benefits to older people.
Research by Dr Thomas Bak at the University of Edinburgh has highlighted the positive effects of learning a second language for older people.
This ground-breaking research has shown that:
✔ People who speak a second language are less likely to develop dementia, and if they do, the onset of dementia can be delayed by up to 5 years, compared to those who speak only one language. Bilingual people are also likely to recover more quickly from strokes.
✔ You don’t have to be bilingual to gain the health benefits of learning a language. Positive changes occur in the brain after just one week of language learning.
It is clear to me that more needs to be done to raise awareness of these astounding research findings, and to make language-learning accessible and available for all older people, especially those who are living in care homes, and those with dementia, as they are currently unlikely to be able to access this type of learning.
This is what prompted me to start "Languagility": I want to do whatever I can to help people discover the joy and health benefits of learning a language, at any age.
If you would like to know more about the research in this area, have a look at the articles and papers listed below, or read this blog post by Dr Bak, in the British Medical Journal online, published in 2016, for a clear summary of the findings.
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2016/09/01/thomas-bak-language-lessons-to-help-protect-against-dementia/
- Bak TH, Long MR, Vega-Mendoza M, Sorace A. (2016) Novelty, Challenge, and Practice: The Impact of Intensive Language Learning on Attentional Functions. PLoS One. Published on-line 27 April 2016.
- Bak TH, Nissan J, Allerhand M, Deary IJ (2014) Does Bilingualism Influence Cognitive Ageing? Annals of Neurology 75 (6): 959-63.
- Alladi S, Bak TH, Duggirala V, Surampudi B, Shailaja M, Shukla AK, Chaudhuri JD, Kaul S (2013). Bilingualism delays age at onset of dementia, independent of education and immigration status. Neurology 81 (22):1938-1944.
- Bak TH, Chandran S (2012) What wires together, fires together: Verbs, Actions and Neurodegeneration in Motor Neuron Disease. Cortex, 48, 9367-944.