Photo by cesarastudillo

Our weekly Ask an Expert series continues to grow into a treasure cove of information and advice concerning bilingual families. The experts in the panel all shine in their own right; amongst them is bilingual English/Spanish speech language professional, Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, who recently debunked three common myths about speech development in bilingual children. Now, we are excited to announce that Dr. Kester has joined the impressive panel of bilingual experts that collaborate in our weekly series-Ask an Expert.

We invite you to visit Dr. Kester’s website, Bilinguistics, to learn more about her and her team.

They are “dedicated to enhancing speech and language services for Spanish-English bilingual children, enabling those children to achieve their highest communicative and academic potential.”

Click here to send her your questions regarding speech development in bilingual children.

Should I start teaching my son how to read in Spanish?

A couple of weeks ago author and celebrated researcher Barbara Zurer Pearson answered the question: “When should my child learn to read in a second language?”
Today’s question, sent by Claudia Hadad, digs in deeper into the issue of teaching young bilinguals to read in the minority language.

“We use both English and Spanish at home but our native language is Spanish. My son is 5 and already reads in English. Should I start teaching him how to read in Spanish? Would he be confused with the fact that we use the same alphabet but the sounds are different.”

Hi Claudia,

Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Children are just as capable of becoming bi-literate as they are of becoming bilingual. Dual language learning does not confuse children. Will your child make mistakes in the process of learning to read in two languages? Yes. Just as monolingual, mono-literate children make mistakes when learning to read, bilinguals will as well. Many of the mistakes bilinguals make in development may be the result of influence from the other language but this is part of the learning process. Some people call that “confused” but with feedback, bilingual children learn to correct those errors, just as monolingual children learn to correct their errors with feedback. Children quickly learn to to use both systems. Recent research also suggests that the earlier a child learns two languages, the better off he will be for dual language reading development .

If your son is already reading in English, he should have a relatively easy time learning to read in Spanish. Spanish is considered a “transparent” language because of its mostly one-to-one letter-to-sound correspondence, while English is considered an “opaque” language because there is often more than one sound associated with a letter. Transparent languages are generally easier to learn because their rules are more consistent than opaque languages. Additionally, the orthographies of English and Spanish are very similar, making it easier for children to transfer knowledge from one language to the other.

For a lot of detail on the differences in the orthographies and sound systems of English and Spanish, please see Gorman & Kester (2004) at the following link:
http://bilinguistics.com/education/abad_0701/abad_0701.pdf

Happy reading!

Ellen Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Photo by christopher.woo

Today’s Ask an Expert question was sent in by one of our fellow Mamás Blogueras, Tati from Wanna Jugar With migo.  She´s concerned about her daughter having a hard time rolling her R´s.

Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

The perfect expert to answer this question is Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D, CCS-LLP, a bilingual (English/Spanish) speech language professional.  You can read more about Dr. Kester, check out her previous posts and ask her a question (or any of the other experts on our panel) here.

My Daughter can’t Roll her R’s

“My daughter is almost 5 and she still can’t roll her r’s. How do I teach her to roll her r’s? Are there certain exercises that help? Do native children speakers have a hard time also?”

Hi Tati,

The trilled R is the latest sound to develop in Spanish.  There are a number of resources for speech development in Spanish and they all indicate that children do not typically roll their r’s until 5 to 7 years of age. Your daughter is not behind but if you want practice the trilled r, here are a couple of ideas.

The trilled R is a D sound with the tip of the tongue moving. Try these drills:

The syllable level:

DRA DRE DRI DRO DRU

TRA TRE TRI TRO TRU

The word level:

PARDO, TARDE, CUERDA, GORDO

Hope this helps.  Please keep us up-to-date on her progress.

Sincerely,
Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Bilinguistics Speech and Language Services, Austin, Texas

If you like what we’re talking about sign up for free SpanglishBaby updates via email or via RSS. You’ll like it.

Photo by syronnica

Last week we introduced you to bilingual English/Spanish speech language professional, Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, who debunked three common myths about speech development in bilingual children.  Now, we are excited to announce that Dr. Kester has joined the impressive panel of bilingual experts that collaborate in our weekly series-Ask an Expert.

We invite you to visit Dr. Kester’s website, Bilinguistics, to learn more about her and her team.

They are “dedicated to enhancing speech and language services for Spanish-English bilingual children, enabling those children to achieve their highest communicative and academic potential.”

Click here to send her your questions regarding speech development in bilingual children.

Does my Son Have a Speech Delay Because He’s Bilingual?

Today´s question was sent by Claudia McGlothlin who´s raising two children using the OPOL (One-parent-one-language) method.

Hi. My name is Claudia and I am raising a 34 month-old boy and a 14 month-old girl, both bilingual in English and Spanish. I am from Perú and my husband is from the U.S.

I only speak to my children in Spanish and my husband speaks in English to them. Sometimes he repeats the words that he knows in Spanish but I keep telling him to stop. Some friends told me that the kids can get confused.

My son is not talking yet. He developed his own sign system and he only has a few words: go- jugo-globo-mami-dada-tres(when I count “uno, dos y…” he finishes my sentence)-bus- agua.

I am starting to get concerned on when he will be talking? He completely understands both languages, but I can tell he understands more Spanish since he spends more time with me. Is this normal?  Thanks.

Hi Claudia,

Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

First, let me commend you for your efforts in raising your children as bilinguals.  In today’s world, speaking more than one language will open many doors for your children.  There are three points in your letter that I want to address.  I’ll address them in the order you presented them.

You commented that you tell your husband to stop repeating the Spanish words he knows for fear that your children will get confused.  Stop telling him to stop!  “One parent-one language” is one way that people raise bilingual children but it is not the only way.  Children learn to differentiate their two languages when each parent speaks a different language, when one parent speaks both languages and the other speaks one language, and when both parents speak both languages.  Research indicates that there is no evidence that children with normal language development or children with language impairment are “confused” by learning two languages at the same time.  The more language input your child receives, the better.

Your son is 34-months old and is only using a few words.  This is not typical and it is not a result of a bilingual environment.  Children between 2-1/2 to 3-years of age typically have vocabularies of several hundred words and converse in phrases and simple sentences.  I have 31-month-old twins who live in a bilingual environment.  One has typical language development and converses in sentences.  The other has delayed language skills with a vocabulary of less than 50 words.  They are in the same home and school environments but have very different levels of language skills.  The bilingual environment is not the culprit.

Your son understands both languages well.  This is a great indicator of future language skills.  Children who have comprehension skills similar to their peers are those who are most likely to catch up to their peers in expressive language skills.

I recommend that you have your son evaluated by a bilingual speech-language pathologist who is well-versed in bilingual language development.

To find one in your area, go to the website for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and select Find a Professional.  Follow the prompts to put in your city or zip code and the language(s) you speak.  It will give you a list of providers in your area who can help you.

Sincerely,
Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Bilinguistics Speech and Language Services, Austin, Texas

If you like what we’re talking about sign up for free SpanglishBaby updates via email or via RSS. You’ll like it.