OK, where to begin?
- Doctors know nothing about language and learning and educational attainment, so ignore everything they say. They are experts in another field, namely the way the body works and should stick to that. This is probably the most important thing to remember. Mind you, having said that, most teachers of kids with SN know nothing about the subject either as they get next ot no training. The worst of all is the untrained 1:1 assistant woh arguably does more damage than good in most cases. I'l get onto best approaches later.
- The majority of the world's population is bilingual and a great many of these have SN. There is no evidence to suggest that people with SN cannot acquire two languages, so next time someone comes out with this, ask to be directed to the research which shows this. There is none. Geekgirl says
Dd2 does undoubtedly have a lot of problems with speaking and particularly sound formation, but I don't for one second believe that these are due to bilingualism. The bilingualism is one area of language that doesn't actually seem to cause her any problems.
'I've also come across ignorance and negativity from one speech therapist in particular, and it's not nice as the language you use to talk to your children is something so personal and important in a family setting.'
Shame on that SALT. Don't deal with anyone who doesn't have direct experience of being bilingual or working with bilingula kids or you wil lbe onto a loser. Also as Geekgilr says, if you do not speak your mother tongue with your child you deny them something so personal and important. It is a tragedy if people do this on the 'advice' of ignorant peopel.
- As I said, I work with many people with SN of various sorts, a great many of whom have language difficulties. If they have problems with one, they will have problems with another but that is no reason to deny them access to this additional language, thereby marginalising them further.
SC speaks great sense here
'I am not an expert, but, like you, I suspect that forming shapes with your mouth can't be the essence of the problem, unless the child has a specific problem with mouth muscles or something like that. I mean, I can see how having an accent when speaking a foreign language is down to how you shape your mouth - for instance, as an Italian speaker of English I tend to draw my vowels too long, roll my r-s, can't really do tr in tree, etc. But when I observe DS, the problem is not the sounds (he actually makes some of the Italian sounds that English speakers find difficult, such as gl or gn, without problems), but how he puts the words together. Right now, my priority is language, rather than quality of the sounds IYSWIM.'
Again Soph, the SALT you discussed this with was talking out of her arse.
- It's so crass and foolish to lump peopel with DS together. They are all different for God's sake! Some are loud, some are quiet, some are great communcators, some hardly speak at all. This may be because they are (gasp) individuals with individual traits. I know many adults with DS with whom you can have anormal conversation in English or Welsh, who read and write, have sexual relationships, live alone, hold down a job.
There was a link on the SN board (I'll find it) to an article about a (Spanish I think!) chap with DS who had obtained his degree and was a teacher. Case in point.
- There is evidence to suggest that visual processing of peopel with DS superior to auditory processing in many cases, so effective support with reading and writing is a good place to go. I have observed that it seems to provide a 'hook', in the sense of something tangible on which kids with poor language can latch and make sense of auditory sounds. I am looking at evidence based data driven intervention for my MSc into reading/writing for kids with LD.
Headsprout reading programme is the focus of my research. Whilst not designed exclusively for kids with SN, I am investigating its use with them. Nothing else comes close to it in terms of effective instruction. It costs about £150 to do at home and is superb (I have used it with my own dd who is bilingual and has language difficulties.It has made a dramatic difference to her reading ability which is age appropriate in both languages.)
- I mentioned earlier that most SN provision is pretty bad (well meaning but vague, lacking focis and use of evidence based practice). The best method of all to use is something called Direct Instruction which I am using. It is the most effective way of learning (as demonstrated in mammoth piece of research called Project Follwthrough in the USA, although for various sinister reasons, it is not widely used despite being head and shoulders above anything else. Google Project Followthrough for the reasons why.
The most imprtant person in this field is Siegfrid 'Zig' Engelman. Check out his website here (he has done a lot of work with kids with DS). Don't be fooled by the folksy tone.The man is a genius.
Prof. Engelmann's site
Sue Buckley was an early pioneer of work with kids with DS in Britain in the UK, in particular with reading and writing. Read about her here.
{{http://www.sue-buckley.org/story/ Sue Buckley]]
Good luck ladies. Don't be misled or put off. Don't trust anyone's opinion (as any exponent of DI will say 'Where's the data?' Only with this can decisions be made.
HTH