by admin | Sep 26, 2016 | news
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
by admin | Jul 29, 2014 | news
Many parents are concerned about the implications of exposing children to a bilingual parenting environment. There are many questions about the delays or confusion a child may experience when exposed to two languages at such an early age. Many parents are even discouraged because they are wrongly advised that learning two languages can confuse their children and cause speech delays. It's not like that.
One of the most widespread myths is that a child who learns two languages at the same time becomes confused and uses the two languages without differentiating one from the other. But according to Barbara Zurer Pearson, researcher at the University of Massachusetts expert in bilingualism and author of the book "Raising a Bilingual Child" the baby a few days after birth can already differentiate between one language and another especially if these two languages are very different from each other and in the case of more similar languages the child manages to differentiate them around 6 months of age.
It is important to mention that there is a possibility that when the bilingual child begins to speak he will begin to get his vocabulary from both languages and therefore construct phrases such as "drink milk" but this does not mean that he does not differentiate between the two. Bilingualism experts agree that mixing two languages is transitory and disappears as a child's vocabulary increases in both languages.
It is likely that the myth of language confusion has its basis in fairly old research which claimed that learning two languages at such an early age was counterproductive and thus caused many professionals to erroneously advise parents to avoid bilingualism and continue to do so to this day.
Current research shows that being bilingual has many advantages, such as the ability to think more flexibly. At the semantic level, bilingual children have two or more words for each concept, which translates into more than one way of solving problems. Other studies maintain that children exposed to several languages are more creative and their brain circuits are programmed so that in the future the child is more prepared to learn more languages; they also have a better metalinguistic development that is the ability to understand the structure and components of language, a very important skill for learning. It has also been shown that these children have a greater ability to focus attention when it is needed.
It is true that some bilingual children usually take a little longer than monolingual children, but this is not a general rule and if it were to happen, it would be a temporary delay again.
Numerous researches on bilingualism reveal that the vast majority of bilingual children reach the various stages of language development at approximately the same time as monolingual children.
As all children develop skills at their own pace, specific ages vary from child to child regardless of whether they are spoken in one or two languages. Some children say their first words at one year of age while others say them at one and a half years of age and this is no different in the bilingual child.
This is normal if we can confirm that the child understands passive language, i.e. follows instructions and tries to respond in non-verbal ways to communication in the second language, even if he does not yet use expressive or verbal language.
It is important to stop believing that bilingualism can be harmful to the child's language development. However, if you have doubts about it, it is best to consult a professional. If you want to provide a bilingual education to your child my recommendation is that each parent address him in the language he speaks most since at this age the most important thing is to provide your child with a correct linguistic model. For example, if one parent speaks better English and the other parent speaks better Spanish, then each parent should speak with their child in the language in which he or she speaks best.
Lic. Rocío Vargas
Speech, Language and Voice Therapist.
