Blingualism in Today's Children

My neice recently celebrated her 2nd birthday. While she was opening her presents, I realized that she was recieving many bilingual educational toys. Such toys included word recognition and speaking techniques for both Spanish and English alike. They also gave examples of of how these words would be pronounced and used. Her father speaks Spanish and her mother English, although her mother has a good basis in Spanish and can speak it fairly well as well. With a single mother raising her, it amazes me how my neice has been able to acquire this "second language" so fast and easily, not to mention keep that information in her memory banks and not just repeating information that she's heard. For the time she was exposed to her Spanish speaking father, she was able to recognize, and speak what she had obtained. Watching her play with her new toys after she opened them, I realized how children can easily be exposed to different languages just within their own families nowadays. The point is whether or not she will be able to keep the advantage of this second language throughout her life. Most students struggle to acquire a second language when it is expected to, in Junior High or High School. If she can keep one foot in both language pools, the oportunities she'll meet in the future will be much to her own advantage. Being only 2, and having a knowledgable distinction between Spanish words and English words, I'd say she's already inpressed a few of her acquiantences.