Time for SpanglishBaby Live Hangout #3: Bilingualism & Kids with Special Needs

We’re getting everything ready for our third SpanglishBaby LIVE Google+ Hangout and we’d love for you to join us tomorrow. This time around we’re discussing bilingualism and children with special needs. For those of you who’ve never joined a Google+ Hangout, you should know that it’s just like hanging out with a bunch of friends, except that you’re not all in the same room.

In case you missed them, in our first Hangout we discussed dual language immersion programs and in our second one we talked about the very popular concern most parents raising bilingual children have at one point of their journey: the rebellion stage — when your kids refuse to speak to you in Spanish. Ana and I are loving how these are turning out and we’re looking forward to many more episodes to come!

WHAT: In our third Hangout we’ll be discussing whether or not it’s possible to raise bilingual children with special needs and we hope to dispel a few myths along the way.

WHEN: Tuesday, March. 12 at 1 p.m. EST.

WHO: Joining Ana and I will be Gabriela Simon-Cereijido, a bilingual speech-language pathologist at California State Universtiy, Los Angeles — and three moms of children with special needs:

Kim Lane, our regularly month contributor, who is the mother of 7-year-old twin boys, both of whom have special needs and are in full-time special education programs.

Eliana Tardio a mother of two children with Down syndrome who promotes bilingualism as a tool for stimulating learning and development in kids with special needs.

Paula Bendfeldt-Diaz whose daughter speaks in both English and Spanish and being diagnosed with autism has not stopped her from communicating in both languages. Paula is the founder of www.GrowingUpBilingual.com.

There are many ways for you to be part of this Google Hangout online.

1. First of all, RSVP on the event page.

2. Add the SpanglishBaby Google+ Page to your Circles.

3. On Tuesday, March 12, starting at 1 p.m. EST, the SpanglishBaby Live Hangout will go on air and you’ll be able to watch it on the event page and on our YouTube channel.

4. The hashtag for all our SpanglishBaby Live Hangouts is #BilingualKids and you can use it on Google+, Twitter or Instagram and we’ll find you!

5. Once the Hangout is over, a recording of it will be made available for all to view, share and/or embed on the SpanglishBaby YouTube channel.

If you’d like to have your question related to raising bilingual and/or bicultural kids answered by ourselves or one of our experts, please fill out this form. If you’re interested in participating in one of our SpanglishBaby Live Google+ Hangouts, you’ll be able to let us know in the form too.

If you want to learn more about Google+ Hangouts On Air, check out this page. Feel free to leave us any questions or suggestions in the comments area below, on the event page or our Google+ page and Community!

UPDATE

Below is the full Hangout. We learned a lot!