No abstract

Early learning of a second language at home has been found to be beneficial for children’s cognitive development, including their ability to ascribe mental states to others, also called Theory of Mind. We investigated whether later second language learning in an educational setting can accelerate children’s Theory of Mind development and whether the amount of exposure to second language education makes a difference. We tested three groups of monolingual four-five year old children with varying language exposure at the beginning of their first year at primary school and 24 weeks later. Children attending bilingual schools and children with weekly short second language lessons exhibited very similar accelerated Theory of Mind development compared to children without any second language provision. Theory of Mind advances were not related to other cognitive advances. Thus, limited foreign language teaching can boost young children’s social cognitive development, providing an enhanced basis for their social competence development.