Immigrant children misdiagnosed as language-impaired (fwd)

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Immigrant children misdiagnosed as language-impaired

Immigrant children still mastering the English language risk being
shuffled into special education services they don't need, because of
errors in assessment for speech problems, according to a new University
of Alberta study.

http://presszoom.com/story_111750.html

(PressZoom) - The study showed that the expressive language
characteristics of typically developing children learning English as a
second language are similar to the English spoken by monolingual
children who have specific language impairment. "The errors they make
when they speak English are nearly identical to the errors children
make when they are language-impaired," said Dr. Johanne Paradis, a
linguistics professor at the University of Alberta.

The study appears in the July, 2005 edition of Language, Speech &
Hearing Services in Schools.

In studying 24 children aged four to seven who have been learning
English as a second language for an average of 9.5 months, Dr. Paradis
discovered that their accuracy rates and error patterns were similar to
those reported in monolingual children who had been diagnosed with
speech language impairment. The children were tested in their usage of
verbs, prepositions and determiner words like 'a' and 'the'.

"The existing similarities, along with large individual differences in
how quickly children learn English, could result in misdiagnosis and
therefore be a cause of unnecessary referrals to speech therapy
services," Dr. Paradis said. This phenomenon could be part of a larger
problem that has been widely acknowledged in the United States that
linguistic minority children are statistically over-represented in all
areas of special education," said Dr. Paradis.

This overlap in linguistic characteristics between English second
language children and language-impaired children is an issue for many
countries: Canada, the U.S.A., the United Kingdom and Australia."

And while it may appear beneficial to have immigrant children enrolled
for focused linguistic attention by receiving therapy services, the
youngsters may suffer stigmatization, Paradis said. "Their parents may
believe there is something wrong with the child. And receiving special
education services can colour a child's education future and
self-esteem."

Nor is it a good use of scarce resources for special education, Dr.
Paradis noted. "The services need to be there for the children who
really need them."

The method of language testing for immigrant children must be changed,
Dr. Paradis added. "The use of English standardized tests with
non-native English-speakers is not a good practice. You can't
uncritically use tests developed for native speakers with kids who have
been exposed to English for just one year." As part of the study, the
children were administered a standardized test for language
development, and nearly all of them scored as if they were
language-impaired.

Young children learning English can be expected to make grammatical
errors, well into the second year of their experience speaking the
language, and more appropriate expectations need to be set when
assessing the youngsters, Paradis said. She suggested that instead of
comparing their skills to those of monolingual English-speaking
children, they be compared to the skills of their peers; other
youngsters who are also learning English as a second language.


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Paradis' study was funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical
Research and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada.

For more information on this study, contact: Bev Betkowski
Media relations
University of Alberta
780-492-3808
beverly.betkowski at ualberta.ca


Contact: Bev Betkowski
beverly.betkowski at ualberta.ca
780-492-3808
University of Alberta