Bilingualism or Speech Delay?
Today, more and more parents are raising their children in a bilingual home either because at home one parent speaks another language or because they want to enroll their children in bilingual schools. However, there is an idea that this lifestyle affects children's language development, or I have even found language therapists who recommend not exposing children to a second language, discouraging attempts and wasting the benefits of bilingualism.
It is important to know how to differentiate between the characteristics of a bilingual child's language and those of a language disorder. In this line there are two types of bilingual children: those who speak a language other than Spanish at home and develop normally and those who speak a language other than Spanish at home and have a speech delay.
Both groups of children are trying to learn two languages and at the same time they are trying to learn academic concepts. Both groups of children make mistakes in the production of sounds, may alter the order of words in a sentence, and may even use shorter sentences than the non-bilingual child. However, there are resources to identify which children actually have a developmental speech disorder.
Here is an example that can illustrate the above.
Common sounds in both languages.
All languages share some sounds. For example, Spanish and English share the sound d and the sound k, but there are also sounds that do not share for example the sounds th or dge, which are exclusive to the English language. A child without speech disturbances should be able to produce all the sounds that both languages share and it is normal for him to have difficulties with those sounds that are not shared by both languages.
For example, if your bilingual child is able to pronounce the word day or day but finds it difficult to pronounce the word edge, this would be within expectation. But if your child has difficulty producing sounds that are shared by both languages then it is time to visit the speech therapist .
But it's not just a matter of identifying the sounds that share both languages. Another very important factor to take into account is the age of the child, since the age of acquisition of each language sound is not the same for both languages. Sounds develop at different ages and it must be clear what those times are in both the Spanish and English languages. That is why if you have doubts it is advisable to go to the consultation with a bilingual speech therapist.
Intelligibility
Regardless of the mother tongue, bilingualism does NOT cause a child to be unintelligible to those who speak their language. By age 3 most bilingual children should be understood by their family members 100 percent of the time and by age 4 most children should be understood by their teachers. This does not mean that they should speak perfectly and not make mistakes. Children can make pronunciation errors without being unintelligible. In these cases the speaker must understand the meaning of the word and what the child is trying to say.
Remember that bilingualism is not currently believed to cause speech delay. If you have any questions after reading this article do not hesitate to contact a certified Speech Therapist.
Source Scott Prath, M.A., Vice President of Bilinguistics in Austin, Texas