Comments on: When Bilingual Kids are Misidentified as Special Ed Students

By: Ana

Ana — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 21:32:16 +0000

Forget the bilingual speech- language patohlogist !!! he is only 2 1/2 for god sake.
We are trilingual in the family. We live in the border of two countries and we also have another language. Public schooll is bilingual, and in the street we speak Spanish.
We probably need more time than others to START having more vocabulary , we may have another rithm…but please !!!!!!
My daughter is 15 years old, and speaks 5 languages. Not because I forced her to do so, just because of our geographical situation!. We are architects, doctors, teacher, car mecanic, stay at home dad , unemployed as everyone else etc. etc. etc.
Excuse my writing, english is not one of my three birth languages

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By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 21:02:54 +0000

Parents who are teaching two languages to little ones in the home and are concerned about limited vocabulary in one language or the other need to take in to consideration the language that the child self selects. Often times children self select a language to speak in, they have internal reasons for the selection typically driven by social or emotional factors. Parents need to enforce their expectation of the language for speaking. It simplifies matters for the child if language can be clearly tagged to a person or activity, for example when we speak to daddy we only answer him in Chinese, but we always answer mom in English. If parents don’t enforce their expectations then children may code-switch or self select language. Code-switching or self selecting will increase the time it takes for a student to master the structure of any given language.

Developing language targets four domains: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Proficiency levels can/will be different in every domain. While it may seem as if students have limited vocabulary in one language or another it could be that they have an extensive listening vocabulary, but have a smaller speaking vocabulary, because they are at different linguistic proficiency levels in those domains. Everyone learns language through the four domains. When a student is monolingual they are processing the one language through the four domains, but have levels of proficiency in each linguistic domain. The successes in each domain are influenced by the child’s individual learning style, intellectual ability and personality. It may at times seem as if a student learning several languages has a speech delay, but more than likely the reasons behind the delay have nothing to do with the language input, but instead is a result of multiple other factors.

There is never a good reason for stopping multiple language instruction. As educators or parents we cannot truly know how much a child with disabilities internalizes the language(s). Shame on the educator that tells you not to embrace the learning of multiple languages. Language is history, culture, emotion a link to who we were and are as a people- don’t let anyone take that away from your child.

By: Olena

Olena — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 15:55:39 +0000

Katherine,
my son was also a very late speaker. He only started to say phrases by 3 years. And he was not really bilingual at the time, we moved in USA when he was 3 and 3 month. By 3 and a half 2 of his languages developed in a fast pace. He is 9 now, he reads a lot and very good at math. He is not super talkative, but he definitely does not have any problems with speech. So maybe your son is just late talker and bilingualism is not a blame here!

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 19:35:48 +0000

Katherine,
If you have any concerns over your child’s speech and language development, it may be worthwhile to get him evaluated by a bilingual speech-language pathologist (I am one). Try to find one that has a bilingual certification, meaning that they have studied bilingual speech-language development, not just that they are someone who speaks Spanish. However, whether your child has a delay or not, we do not recommend that parents stop speaking the other language to their child. Research has shown that even children with delays can become bilingual, and that taking away one of the languages that they speak can be a hindrance to them. Bilingualism does not cause speech-language delays! Please visit the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association at http://www.asha.org for more info and good luck!

By: Becky

Becky — Sat, 09 Nov 2013 03:09:51 +0000

Katherine: Not all children are delayed in language learning, but of course some are. I will give you some hope:)- at my daughter’s 2 year old dr appt (at the time the was an only child) the doctor asked me if she was speaking in 2 word sentences. 2 word sentences!? She only knew about 5-6 words total!? But since she was my oldest, I thought it was normal (until the moment w/ the dr). I knew she understood both Spanish and English because she would point to pictures in books or bring me objects I would ask for (you can try that with your son to verify his comprehension in both languages). The doctor completely worried me, but about a month after she turned 2 her vocabulary blossomed. It was as if something clicked and she understood how to communicate verbally finally:). Now she is 8 and DOES NOT STOP talking!:) She is a very good reader, and can read and write in Spanish (though not as well as she does in English). Keep at it, and do not give up one of the languages!!!