How to deal with a bad assessment in Pre-School?

[EmmaSalt]

My daughter is 4 years old, she grew up tri-lingual as we lived in two countries and her parents have different nationalities. As a result of having to cope with 3 languages we think our daughter has developed an insecurity with regards to communicating with others, as in she always noticed that other children could communicate better than her (since they did not have to deal with 3 languages, had gran and grandad around etc) and as a result has become a bit of a clown and a poor communicator. We had the option of undergoing a voluntary assessment by paediatricians in her Kindergarden. This we did, and the result was shattering. Her Kindergarten supervisor told us that she had problems understanding what was requested of her, so that even though she could tell our daughter could hear the tones that were played to her she did not hit some button as was requested. She was insecure in terms of taking instructions to stand on one leg, doing it. She was always bad at drawing (despite us making some effort to correct this), and this was remarked uppon by the paediatrician. Finally her overall language development was described as 'disturbed'.

Whilst we recognise that our daughter has deficits in communication, due to having to be able to process 3 languages, obviously we do not see her development as disturbed at all, but rather normal, given that she had to move from country to country. The problem is that this assessment may be logged and in two years another one is coming that will determine if she can start school. I was invited to speak to the paediatrican on the phone. How do I deal with this, given that I view her 'work' as fantastically useless, ill-conceived and lacking even a basic understanding of the issues facing children of multi-national backgrounds? Should I call her at all? I do not see the point myself.

Is your concern that there is an issue with your daughter's development or that the paed has seen issues where there are none? What do her kindergarten say, do they agree with the paed? Have they proposed any follow up?

If I was you I would definitely be calling to find out more. For example, does disturbed mean that she is mixing up her three languages, which is normal, or something more unusual like knowing lots of verbs and no nouns? I would be careful about putting communication issues down to being multilingual, from everything I have read it is a myth that bi/multilingualism causes speech delays.

Are you on the Facebook group raising bilingual/multilingual children? I'm sure you'd get some good advice on there.

I can see this must be difficult to hear. But, the fact that your daughter's communication issues have been caused by her multinational background doesn't mean she doesn't need help, iyswim. It sounds like she could still do with some help to overcome the effects of the multiple countries/languages etc. So, I'd be cooperating with the team that want to help her...

Daisy - We have studied books on this and as far as we can tell there is no issue with her development. Since dealing with 3 languages is much harder than learning just one, it is apparently normal for a 4 year old not to master a language as early and as well as some other children who deal with just one. The paed has seen issues where there are none, therefore, in our opinion. The Kindergarten educator agrees with this and thinks there is nothing to worry about. Even though the Paed wrote that she has hearing issues, the Kindergarten educator disagreed and said she could clearly hear the tones fine, she just did not press a button, as instructed, ie she had problems understanding what was required of her.

I think I will call to discuss, it just seems so pointless. She is not mixing up the languages a lot, she is just not very good at speaking clearly. For instance, she can't say an 'r', but rather like a Chinese person pronounces it 'L'. Add to that she has an EXTREMELY high voice, so even for her parents it is sometimes hard to understand what she is saying, let alone strangers. She does use wrong grammar on occasion, bear in mind she was in a different country for a year until July 2014. Thanks for the special forum tip, I'll definitely go there.

Minipie, thanks, I guess you're right, we should perhaps take up the 'early development' aids they suggested, whatever that means.

A speech problem is not the same as a language problem. Children can have a speech delay whilst their language is unaffected.
Children can also be awkward little wotsits who don't want to co-operate with a test they don't want to do.

If your being offered help to get her past a speech delay, go for it, clarity of diction will help in all her languages.

What country are you in now?

I've never heard of a Paediatrician coming out to a kindergarten (indeed, kindergarten is an unusual term in UK). Was it definitely a Paediatrician?

The 'pressing a button' thing sounds like an audiology test, and usually the audiologists have all sorts of ways round assessing if the child has heard the sound, and they ensure that any doubt about understanding has been cleared up before they begin the assessment.

If she didn't understand what she was to do though, isn't that, in itself, a little concerning in terms of her receptive language anyway?

Again, never come across them wanting a Nursery aged child to stand on one leg, but....

The term 'disturbed' is an odd one too. Usually it would either be 'disordered' or 'delayed'.

It is understandable with a multi-lingual background that her expressive language skills might be a little behind those of her peers at a young age, but that wouldn't necessarily mean that she might not have a language disorder alongside it. You can't ignore all children when you are worried about their language development, just because their home language isn't English. It's good to get it checked.

Why will an assessment 'determine if she can start school' ? . Surely even if she had a disordered language pattern, it wouldn't prevent her starting school?

I have also read quite a lot about bilingual/trilingual children's language development and from what I have read language delay should never be ignored because a child speaks more than one language, some children will be both multilingual and have a language delay.

It's good that your dc has another 2 years before starting school, possibly her language will have improved without help, but I don't think extra help would have a detrimental effect.

It's obviously a great shock to you, but to put that hearing test in context, my DD1 did that test on her third birthday (coincidence, they had a slot then) and had a severe receptive and expressive speech and language delay equal to half of her life (ie. Scored equal to a 2 year old at age 4) and still was able to follow that instruction for that test. She's now in her 5th year at special school.

I don't think you should ignore it. I don't think you should put it down to being trilingual. Even if part of it is down to being trilingual, that's what she is and she's not coping.