International Journal of Bilingualism 17(4) 431–447 © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1367006912438300 Ijb.sagepub.com The effect of bilingualism on creativity: Developmental and educational perspectives Mark Leikin University of Haifa, Israel Abstract This study is aimed at examining the possible effect of bilingualism on creativity in nonmathematical and mathematical problem solving among very young bilingual and monolingual preschoolers. An additional factor that has been considered in this study is the form of bilingual education. Accordingly, three groups of children (mean age = 45.4 months at the beginning of the study) participated in this study: (a) 13 bilingual children from a bilingual (Hebrew–Russian) kindergarten, (b) 10 bilingual children from a monolingual (Hebrew) kindergarten, and (c) 14 monolingual children (Hebrew) from a monolingual kindergarten. All children performed the Picture Multiple Solution task on general creativity and the Creating Equal Number task on mathematical creativity. The results reveal that both early bilingualism and some form of bilingual education seem to influence the children’s general and mathematical creativity. Moreover, differences between bilingual children from the bilingual kindergarten and monolingual children were more prominent (in favor of the bilinguals). In addition, the findings confirm the hypothesis concerning the differences between two types of creative ability in the context of bilingual and monolingual development. Keywords bilingualism, early childhood, general and mathematical creativity Introduction The present study has been prompted by limited, but somewhat contradictory, findings about the influence of bilingualism on the development of high-order cognitive functions, one of which is creativity (Bialystok, 2009; Ricciardelli, 1992a; Simonton, 2008). Although several decades ago there was consensus regarding the negative influence of bilingualism on children’s mental and cognitive development (Genesee, 2009), at present there is near consensus regarding the positive impact of bilingualism (especially of balanced bilingualism) on children’s cognitive, linguistic, and academic growth (Bialystok, 2001; Cummins, 2000; Simonton, 2008). The present study aims to Corresponding author: Mark Leikin, Department of Special Education, Laboratory for Neurocognitive Examination of Giftedness, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel. Email: markl@edu.haifa.ac.il 438300IJB 17 4 10.1177/1367006912438300LeikinInternational Journal of Bilingualism 2012 Article