In 2009, roughly 11.2 million school-age children between the ages of 5 and 17 spoke a language other than English at home, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. As these individuals get older, their ability to speak more than one language may help them ward off dementia, based on the results of recent research from York University.

In a new paper, which appears in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, York’s Ellen Bialystok and colleagues discuss the ways in which being bilingual may be beneficial to people’s health. To arrive at their conclusions, the researchers looked at data from past studies related to how speaking more than one language affects cognition in adults.

They found that when people know more than one language, their need to switch between them requires them to use brain regions that are related to general attention and cognitive control. These actions may actually reconfigure and strengthen these neurological areas.

"Our conclusion is that lifelong experience in managing attention to two languages reorganizes specific brain networks, creating a more effective basis for executive control and sustaining better cognitive performance throughout the lifespan," Bialystok said.

If individuals are bilingual, they may want to take an IQ test and see what impact their ability to speak more than one language has had on their cognitive abilities.