late talkers

[Liz Bates]

The general recommendation by people like Leslie Rescorla, Donna Thal and
others who have worked with "late talkers" is to refer for further testing
(starting with a hearing test) any child who has reached 24 months and still

--has fewer than 50 words
--is not combining words

The majority of 'late talkers' turn out fine (in the sense that they do not
later qualify for a clinical diagnosis of language impairment), but it is
better to be safe than sorry.  BTW: this recommendation holds whether we
are talking about a monolingual or a bilingual learning situation.  I
should note, though, that the term "L2" applied to a child immersed in that
language at 16 months seems like a stretch to me.  -liz bates



>A colleague of mine recently asked me for advice because her 25 month
>daughter that she adopted from China at age 16 months is not yet using much
>language. Her pediatrician has recommended a hearing test. She wondered if
>there were studies on L2 learners like this. I know of work with older
>children (preschoolers), but am at a loss for work on younger children.
>
>Can anyone help?
>
>Thank you,
>
>Lynn Santelmann
>**************************************************************
>Lynn Santelmann, Ph.D.
>Assistant Professor
>Department of Applied Linguistics
>Portland State University
>P.O. Box 751
>239 East Hall
>Portland, OR 97201
>
>Phone: (503) 725-4140
>Fax: (503) 725-4139
>e-mail: santelmannl at pdx.edu (last name + FIRST initial)
>http://web.pdx.edu/~dbls/
>***************************************************************