early sequential language acquisition

[Lynne Hewitt]

The anecdote shared by Cynthia Core about a child experiencing sequential
"bilingual" input, who was able in 8 weeks to learn 30 words, is
intriguing, but what it really tells us is that it is possible to switch
quickly.  What it doesn't tell us is whether that is the average
response--which is what a clinician needs to know.  Is the fast learner
functioning at the 50th or the 99th percentile?  Is the other, non-talking
child in the 1st percentile? That is why the other indicators of
developmental progress I mentioned are so important, because they help take
overall development into account.

As an earlier post pointed out, most non-talking 20 month olds go on to be
fine. One theory about late talkers that I've heard bandied about is that
they take longer to get oral motor programming up to speed.  (Which is why
receptive language ability has more weight than expressive in assessment.)
Another theory is that they are the more cautious ones, as opposed to the
risk takers discussed in the individual differences literature.

In addition to overall development assessment, clinicians assess the
language of children with suspected disorders by comparing linguistic
performance to normative information.  This is precisely what is lacking in
the vast majority (perhaps all) cases of bilingualism--what languages was
the child exposed to, for how long, how intensively, when did input in
Language 1 stop and Language 2 start?  These are very difficult
problems--the chance of finding a relevant and sufficiently large database
for comparison is slim.  Who knows--there might even be language-internal
factors that make switching between some languages harder than
others.  (I'm thinking of work such as that of Brian MacWhinney comparing
order of acquisition of grammatical elements in simultaneous bilingual
learners.)

The importance of hearing assessment cannot be overemphasized, btw.  While
parents who suspect hearing impairment are usually correct (except in the
case of children with autism), the converse is not the case--there are many
documented cases of significant impairments going unsuspected for months
and years.

Lynne H.



Lynne E. Hewitt, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Disorders
Health Center Building
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403
Phone: 419-372-7181
Fax: 419-372-8089