Elena V. Poimanova

The review outlines the general concepts, the essence of what constituted bilingualism and its types in psychology. The relevance of considering the impact of early bilingualism and bilingual education is due to the growing popularity of bilingual educational programs.

The review shows that bilinguals can be systematized by age, synchronization of the language skill acquisition, the degree of proficiency in both languages, and the representation of languages in one’s own mind or cultural affinity. It was emphasized that the intellectual development of bilingual children is the most studied issue in terms of studying bilingualism. Research identified the advantages of bilingualism in the following features of cognitive development: the formation of concepts, the use of complex analytical strategies in solving non-verbal problems, attention focusing and ignoring false signals, verbal originality and flexibility, creativity in solving mathematical problems. Studying bilingualism in neurophysiological research confirmed the hypotheses of the increase in the number and density of neural connections in the areas responsible for linguistic operations and cognitive abilities. The analysis of well-known methods aimed at assessing language skills in bilingual children has been carried out.