speech delay and bilingual education

[Silliman, Elaine]

The discussion on the possible causes of language delay in a child being
reared in a bilingual environment raised two important points. First, in a
child that appears to be as seriously delayed as described, the ruling out
of a hearing loss through a comprehensive audiological evaluation is an
essential first step. Second, one would hope that speech-language
pathologists would not attribute a language learning problem of this kind to
a child's bilingual education. As Fred Genesee points out, if a child has a
language impairment, that impairment will be found in both languages that
the child speaks, not just one.

A major clinical issue, however, is that many of the tools available for
diagnostic decision making are based on empirical studies of English
speaking children. Thus, an important issue concerns how to analyze the
level of language development in children whose languages differ
substantially from English morphosyntax. For an excellent discussion of the
issues involved in the cross-linguistic clinical analysis of language
samples, two recent sources are recommended:

Gutierrez-Clellen, V. F., Restrepo, M. A., Bedore, L., Pena, E., & Anderson.
R. (2000). Language sample analysis in Spanish-speaking children:
Methodological considerations. Language, Speech, & Hearing Services in
Schools, 31 (1), 88-98.

Leonard, L. B. (1999). The study of language acquisition across languages.
In O. L. Taylor & L. B. Leonard (Eds.), Language acquisition across North
America: Cross-cultural and cross-linguistic perspectives (pp. 3-18). San
Diego, CA: Singular Publishing.

Elaine Silliman

Professor
Communication Sciences and Disorders &
Cognitive and Neural Sciences
University of South Florida
PCD 4021C
Tampa, FL 33620
Voice mail: (813) 974-9812
Fax: (813) 974-0822/8421
E-mail: silliman at chuma1.cas.usf.edu

 -----Original Message-----
From: Mary Kastamoula [mailto:mka at otenet.gr]
Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2001 3:48 PM
To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
Subject: speech delay and bilingual education



Dear Dr. Beate,

it seems to me there is more than a language delay here! And there are many
questions to consider.

1) Who has diagnosed the general cognitive and motor delay of the child? Was
the child seen by a child psychiatrist/psychologist or a peadiatrician? This
is important in evaluating language development. Is the language delay part
of a general delay or is the delay specific to language skills?

2) The point about checking hearing is very valid and part of a routine when
investigating language delay.

3) What is the child's play skills? Are they age appropriate?

4) How is the child communicating with siblings? In which language? What
about the father?

I agree with the suggestion that the mother should use her own language to
communicate with the child and not a language she does possess well. Or
otherwise, if the mother cannot control input from greek relatives she
should at least use her own language consistently.

I think is is not only a matter of what the mother will do. I recommend a
general assessment of the child's cognitive and play skills by a good child
psychologist and a visit to another speech and language therapist for a
second opinion. This should be possible if the family lives in Athens.

Mary Kastamoula
Speech and Language Therapist
Greece