The older children get, the more opportunities they have to study a second language at school. Whether they are learning French or Spanish, becoming bilingual may help kids’ brains become more agile. This is one of the findings researchers from the University of Strathclyde arrived at in a recent study of bilingual children.

During the study, researchers worked with primary school students who either spoke English or Italian. Half of these youths also happened to be bilingual and spoke Gaelic or Sardinian. The researchers found that when it came to qualities like mental alertness, children who spoke two languages came out on top.

"Our study has found that it can have demonstrable benefits, not only in language but in arithmetic, problem solving and enabling children to think creatively," said Fraser Lauchlan, who led the study.

After assessing the participants’ understanding of vocabulary, Lauchlan and his fellow researchers noticed that bilingual youths showed a greater level of detail and richness when describing words.

As so many children speak English at school and another language at home, the parents of bilingual students may want to have them take an IQ test for kids to see if their knowledge of two languages has impacted their cognitive abilities.