I agree. Also at play is probably our cultural way of thinking about what "smart" constitutes. Children absorb everything -- at their own pace, they learn how

I agree. Also at play is probably our cultural way of thinking about what "smart" constitutes. Children absorb everything -- at their own pace, they learn how to walk, they learn their mother tongue etc, without parents "teaching" them by rote or by issuing instructions. Likewise, if another language is used at home, children tend to pick that up too (to them its just a natural part of their environment). In music, Suzuki (for example) was struck by how easily children acquire their mother tongue; he argued that if children were exposed to playing (violin eg) at an early age, as a natural part of their environment, they would acquire it as effortlessly as walking / mother tongue, without rote-teaching or even the concept of "music talent" being necessary. This seems to pan out in practice. If there is a child who speaks two or three languages, and plays the violin, then our culture tends to consider this child "smart" (Or in the words of the article, perhaps not smarter but perhaps with an enhanced cognitive ability). Does this say anything about intelligence? Probably not. But it does seem safe to say that the multilingual instrument-playing child will have some knowledge inside himself that skills can be acquired, and a confidence that comes from knowing he has done this before. And this will probably make learning easier / more fun in future.