Bilingual Immersion Preschool Program

Bilingual Language Immersion

We are excited to offer our students here at Carlsbad Country Day School the opportunity to enter our Spanish Immersion program and master a second language at an age where they can become truly bilingual in a natural environment.

According to the Language Acquisition and Development Research Laboratory at Columbia University, children who learn two languages before 36 months of age have the opportunity to become native speakers of both languages. After that time, according to the Institute of Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, "your child is considered an adult linguistically, and will struggle with second language learning and rarely attain native like fluency.

Although some might be concerned that bilingualism puts children at risk for language delay or academic failure, research does not support this. To the contrary, studies consistently show that, besides the obvious practical and economic gains, bilingualism leads to a number of cognitive advantages." (Ramirez and Kuhl, 2016). Children excel cognitively because it challenges their brains to think in many different ways, increasing their reasoning abilities. Socially, they are able to connect to a new community and studies show that because bilingual children are constantly code switching, their self-regulation skills are more advanced than their peers.

Parents who are interested in the specifics of this program are encouraged to contact the school as early as possible because space is extremely limited and positions fill quickly.