Lexicon in Bilingual Language Impaired Children

[Darinka Andjelkovic]

In the continuation of Chris Boyatzis's question:
    c. could anyone point to some readings (if there is any, and if question is not too naive) on the relationship between early "explosion of vocabulary" at the age of 2 and 3 in the course of language development, and establishing of neural connections in the brain development.

Thank you.
Darinka Andjelkovic
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Chris Boyatzis 
  To: M.M.R. (Manuela) Julien ; Edith Schlag 
  Cc: CHILDES ; a.correianunes at chello.nl 
  Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 6:10 PM
  Subject: Re: Lexicon in Bilingual Language Impaired Children


  Would anyone be able to point me to some readings on the relationship between:
          a.  early language development and brain maturation, specifically in temporal lobe/Broca's/Wernicke's areas?
          b.  early linguistic environment/parental input and brain maturation?

  THanks much!
  Chris Boyatzis

  At 02:32 PM 3/24/2005 +0100, M.M.R. (Manuela) Julien wrote:

    Dear Edith,

    I think that the idea that learning two languages would be to much for a child with a language impairment is not justified. There is no evidence, as far as I know, to support that changing from bilingualism to monolingualism helps children with language problems overcome their problems. One of the risks of such a sudden switch is that the communication with the family wil be disturbed. 
    This is a very delicate issue and there are many factors which need to be considered before taking a decision. For instance,  what are the wishes of the parents regarding the childs bilingualism, what is the parents command of the language they choose to use if they insist on droping one of  the languages? Are they able to offer the child a rich exposure to that language?  

    Colin Baker has written about this issue on " A parents' and teachers' guide to bilingualism,  Multilingual Matters ltd. Clevedon, England 2000
     
    The following book, written bij Elke Montanari  Montanari (2004), is also worth reading (it does not deal with language disorders but gives good advice to parents on several issues regarding raising children to be multilingual). The original book was written in German so you can refer it to these parents.

    "Hoe kinderen meertalig opgroeien, PlanPlan producties, Amsterdam"

    Nazife Cavus en myself are at the moment writting an artikel about this issue, in Dutch,  which wil be published in the LO & FO (the Dutch monthly  magazine of the association of speech and language therapists). 

    I hoop this wil help you

    Manuela Julien (neurolinguist and speech and language therapist)
    Haags Audiologisch Centrum Effatha, The Netherlands


     
    At 14:01 21-3-2005, you wrote:

      Dear childes-readers,
      I would like to ask you for some advice. I work with language impaired children in the Netherlands and one of them has got serious language delay, especially in lexical skills. She eldues to gesticulation in both languages. I'd like to have some advice on what language choice the parents should make. Is it better to have her exposed to one language only or would it be more advisable to let both her parents (German-Spanish and living in a mostly German environment) use their mothertongues? I imagine that two languages are a little overtaxing for the kid. Is simultaneous development of two lexicons two much for a language impaired?
      Grateful for any suggestion,
      Edith Schlag, MSc, SLT
      Delft, The Netherlands
    Chris J. Boyatzis, Ph.D.
    Associate Professor of Psychology
    Department of Psychology
    Bucknell University
    Lewisburg PA  17837

    Office phone:  570.577.1696
    FAX  570.577.7007

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