Do you think it's easier for children to retain a language across their lifetime?

I'm not talking about learning a language here, obviously younger people and kids have all sorts of advantage!
Lemme explain my question better:

Do you think kids (lets say anywhere from 6 to 12) learning any language are more likely to retain a bigger portion of their learning later in life?

I ask this because early life experiences affects your character on much deeper level, and well isn't learning something also an experience?
Isn't this why psychologists look into events of our childhood that shaped our personality as an adult? I think there might be a slight connection between this and learning anything else including language! but what do you guys think? is learning earlier helps us retain more even if we don't use that language often?