Remember you or your child don’t need to speak Gaelic to go to a Gaelic medium Parent and Toddler (Pàrant is Pàiste), Playgroup (Cròileagan), Nursery (Sgoil-àraich) or Primary School (Bun-sgoil).
Once your child starts in Gaelic medium pre-school/school they will be immersed in Gaelic. Children will have the opportunity to learn Gaelic and/or expand their vocabulary and experience all their learning through Gaelic.
If children have had the experience of a Gaelic-medium early years/pre-school provision, transferring to a Gaelic medium primary school provision is a natural progression and will seem quite normal to your child. The staff in the pre-school /school will be able to provide you with more information and re-assure you on how children learn Gaelic at the immersion phase.
Don’t worry if your child has not been to a Gaelic pre-school. Young children pick up languages very easily.
Cognitive Advantages
Talking about the science of bilingualism, Joanna McPake discusses the benefits of bilingualism including flexible neural pathways and problem-solving capabilities. This video also includes analysis from Antonella Sorace on how language skills are operative in the brain and facilitate ease of language learning. Finally Fraser Lauchlann explains ‘selective attention’ where a bilingual’s focus remains on the heart of the matter and the ability to filter out superfluous information.
