Yes, that´s right. We´ve hit the dreaded speech development wall. My girl, Camila, turned 3 years old in August. She´s been making sounds and talking up a storm as soon as she discovered she could. She has never been the calladita type. She´s loud, full of energy and always has something to say. Problem is, only a handful of people actually understand what she is saying.
She is up to speed with the amount of words in her bilingual repertoire and with the ability to construct sentences. She also is really savvy at using the correct tenses and picks up new words very, very quickly. Where she has a problem is in the clarity and pronunciation of her words.
Now, take a wild guess how many times I´ve been asked if it is due to her being bilingual? I´ve stopped counting, it´s just not worth it. And, it´s not coming from strangers or people who don´t know better. The question has been raised within the confines of our ML@H household. Yes, both my husband and I have questioned the fact that both of us only speak Spanish to her. I question it, but immediately dismiss it because I know better. If it wasn´t for the last two years of keeping up SpanglishBaby, reading our experts amazing advice, reading your stories and comments on our Forum and Facebook, plus researching for our Must Read articles I probably would have had falsely credited her bilingualism to her delay.
The fact is that this type of speech delay has been common in my family and my husbands. Also, she has no problem distinguishing between Spanish and English words and using them when appropriate. Plus, her word count is where it needs to be. If she was bilingual or not she would still have a speech clarity delay. Punto.
We go in for her first formal evaluation in three weeks. I will let you know how it goes and what I continue to learn from this experience. Stay tuned for a post in the coming weeks with expert advice on how to handle the perceived notion of bilingualism as the cause of speech delay.
Now, please tell me, has your bilingual child gone through speech therapy? How was the experience and what should I prepare myself, and Camila, for? Thank you!!
Good luck, Ana and Camila. And thanks for the reminder to all that bilingualism has nothing to do with speech delays..
Ana,
POR FAVOR, keep us updated. I am very-very curious of the results. I am a clinical fellow in speech-language pathology, and soon-to-begin my professional bilingual certification. I perform several evaluations on a weekly basis, and one thing to keep in mind is: North American assessments are NOT standardized on a multicultural population; therefore, such assessments should only be used for gross comparison to the norm.
I will definitely update here on our progress. I neglected to mention on the post that I made sure that she gets evaluated by a bilingual therapist since she’s still more comfortable speaking Spanish. I need to find out more about the assessments you mentioned. I have to admit this is all very new territory for me.
Ugh. I can say I’ve been there, done that. My son was even put in a monolingual class (at the suggestion of a monolingual “expert”) because he would make progress faster. It has been such a struggle for me to bring him back to using at least some spanish (albeit he does sound gringo, lol). But he is making progress in Spanish and I can say he is such a chatterbox when it comes to English that I can’t believe I was ever worried. I wish you the best with your daughter!
Ay, Marlene. Sadly enough, that’s one of the biggest struggles and one of the main reasons many kids are deprived of a bilingual upbringing.
I am making sure that she is evaluated by a bilingual therapist who can speak in Spanish to her and that understands that I will not take bilingualism as a cause. We really want to empower all parents to fight for that with all the “experts,” to at least get a second opinion before switching gears.
I’m so happy to hear your boy is a chatterbox and is doing well!!
I am…or was before coming a stay at home mom an ESL teacher and it was always frustrating when the school system would not let a child who truly had speech difficulties even be considered for testing or services because they were bilingual. EVEN if it was pronounced in their first language! It was an overreaction to previous problems with teachers referring children for speech evaluation that were simply due to language acquisition! My heart goes out to all parents who have to fight that battle…either way!! I’m sure it will work out for the best!!! Blessings to you and your daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for sharing that with us, Amy. I can imagine everyone’s frustration, especially if you knew that bilingualism wasn’t the cause!
Amy I hear ya!! I also, prior to being a stay at home mami,, use to work as an ELD teacher and interpreter and would encounter this a lot! I would get really frustrated when they did not want to test a child, because they assumed that the problem was the language and not speech!!!
Good luck to Camila! She will do great. It has absolutely NADA to do with being bilingual as you know. My little sister was raised in a monolingual home and had to have speech therapy in Elementary school. She speaks normally now and has for a very long time. My sister also has a son (raised in a monolingual home), who required speech therapy and though his problems were more pronounced than my sister’s, he speaks normally now as well.
I’m sure the speech therapist will give you plenty of advice on how to keep it fun for Camila so she doesn’t feel judged or frustrated while you try to help her through this. (My sister actually loved going to speech therapy. She liked the special attention!)
Suerte, amiga!
Camila will be fine. She’s a very smart, spunky little girl who wants to devour the world in front of her!
Her case will be proof, yet again, that bilingualism has absolutely nothing to do with her need for speech therapy. As we well know, she would need it even if she were monolingual.
Thank goodness she’ll have access to a bilingual speech therapist. I’m sure it’ll make a world of difference!
First of all … thank you for having the strength to share your personal story with all of us Ana.
Second of all … we all know it’s NOT because of the bilingual component in little Camila’s life; however the lurking thoughts, questions, concerns whirl around your minds and create a sense of WHAT IF??????? which I am sure you are trying to dismiss on a daily basis for your sanity.
Lastly … know we support, love, and thank you and Roxana for this community of caring people who are raising children ready for a world full of diversity.
Con cariño / With affection ~ Boca Beth
I too am interested in the follow up. As a bilingual teacher, I also encounter these situations yearly and want to help specialists distinguish speech needs from language ability as an advocate and helper to any families in similar situations. Buena suerte.
My sister’s eldest also went through speech therapy when he was three and all the way up to Kinder. As far as I know, she really liked the program. In her home they also use the ML@H method, and decided to have his speech therapy in Spanish. He then transitioned to an all English school when he started kinder. He is now in first grade and doing great!
Now you got me thinking though…lately some people have been asking about my son and not being able to completely understand what he is saying….I wonder….he’ll be tested for kinder next month, so I guess we will find out then.
Admire you for sharing your story.
And send positive thoughts to you and Camila. She will be excellent…not only that she will know both english and spanish!!
Ana Lilian, how wonderful that Camila will be getting speech therapy! Early intervention has worked such wonders in my kids’ lives that I sing its praises to anyone who will listen. I am looking forward to hearing more about what the experience is like for you and Camila.
One of my boys was evaluated by a bilingual therapist, the other was not. In both cases, I think the therapists made the right call, but having a bilingual therapist for one evaluation definitely made for a more complete evaluation.
Secondo’s speech therapist doesn’t speak Spanish, but it’s amazing to see how the work he does with her in English just spills over in to his Spanish language skills. It blows me away.
And even though Secondo’s delays were much more serious–speech delays were only a small part of it–it drove me crazy to hear everyone tell me it was just because he was learning two languages. And also that Einstein didn’t speak until he was four. Sigh. Fortunately, the experts did not agree, and speech therapy (and special education) has been such a positive experience!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! As a bilingual speech therapist, you have no idea how many times a day I have to defend bilingualism! Thanks for sharing your story! You baby will do fine, you’ll see!
Thanks so much for the reassurance, Vanessa. I´m grateful that you are defending bilingualism as a speech therapist! You have no idea how many people I know that have been completely discouraged by monolingual therapists, pediatricians and teachers. They can never take that back
Hi Ana -
I realize this post is old now, but I just saw it on my iGoogle feed today and wanted to respond. I am a gringa mama with a Honduran husband. I am also a Spanish teacher — for over twenty years at the university level, and now 2 years in my kids’ elementary school. I have three children ages 9, 8 and 6. Our kids hear a mix in our house. I speak to them in English (though I teach them in Spanish at school!), my husband and I speak 95% Spanish in front of them, and he speaks to them mostly in English.
I have seen a mix of speech variations in my kids. I truly think that the biggest variable is the child him/herself. Some kids thrive in a bilingual environment, some kids have problems because of it.
My oldest, a daughter, had problems with the English R sound. Her kindergarten teacher wanted her in speech therapy and assumed that our home language environment was the issue; I thought she was nuts, because I knew that the English R is a late-developing sound. I had my daughter evaluated by a speech therapist friend who speaks Spanish and does a lot of work with kids from Spanish-speaking households. She confirmed my thinking and said that some kids don’t develop the ability to pronounce an English R until they are almost 8. Sure enough, within the first two months of kindergarten, my daughter’s R had “come in” and was no longer an issue.
My third child, also a girl, is a pronunciation marvel. Her English speech is precise and amazing; her Spanish speech is precise and amazing. She has a great ear and sounds like a native in both languages. She could roll her Spanish RR two years before her Honduran-American cousins who hear only Spanish at home.
My son, though, has been a different story. He has always been a careful listener and a good natural (unconscious) imitator, and being raised in a bilingual household has influenced his speech in both good and bad ways. He copied some of daddy’s Spanish and English pronunciation and incorporated it into his English speech; people would ask me if he had an accent, because he ended up sounding neither gringo nor latino. I had to work with him to correct his English long i sound (and thankfully I knew how to do that based on knowing Spanish diphthongs). His English R never came in, and during this past year of 2nd grade, we worked with my speech therapist friend and worked diligently at home to correct this sound. He has been a trooper, and I am so proud of the progress he has made. And he is happy that people no longer look at him strangely or have trouble understanding him. He is also happy to be one of the best pronouncers in his school Spanish class.
For what it’s worth, those have been our speech experiences in our bilingual household. As varied as the kids themselves!!
Thanks so much for sharing these insights, Candace! They help a lot.
I should actually write a follow up post to this one because I never took her to the speech therapist. I decided we could wait it out another year and see if her clarity improved. It definitely has, but her clarity is better in English than it is in Spanish. I think this is because she´s enrolled in an all-English preschool and is “learning” more there. Now I’m waiting to see what will happen once she starts Kindergarten this fall in a Spanish dual immersion program. I’m hoping that her clarity will go to nearly 100% and she won’t need the therapy.