I totally agree that exposure to a second, third, forth language - the more the merrier - stimulates children's brain development. They love hearing new sounds, making new sounds and playing with language and new noises. Unless they have some kind of cognitive disorder, and possibly even then, new languages are a great stimulus for language development in children.

I also agree with the simple methods Marisha lists in her post above. Especially making contact with people who speak a different language and organising times to get together for play and social interaction. I think it is such an important part of children's socialisation and development.

My son communicates with his dad in Arabic and he attends Kimmba's Mandarin playgroup once a week. I have noticed that his language development (in English) has been much faster than his peers who have no interaction with other languages. Also his cognitive processes seem to be more advanced too. By maybe that's just me being completely biased!

I think many people thought I was crazy going to a bilingual playgroup with my son aged 2. It was great meeting other parents there who realise the importance of kids starting to learn languages at an early age. There's a ridiculous mindset in the Australian community that says children don't need to start learning another language until they're in highschool. Hence, most Australian's skills in languages are getting worse and worse as each year passes.

Thanks again Marisha for your excellent advice and ideas to help our kids become future multilinguals!