significant S&L delay in 3yr old trilingual DD

[littleElif]

hello,

my DD (3) is speech delayed. She has quite a big vocabulary but isn't linking words together yet. Also, I am sure her receptive language is behind.

our language set-up is as follows:
1)L1- my language
2)L2- DH's language
3)L3- community language (English)

We practice OPOL; DH and I use English with each other .

DD's strongest language by far is L1 (she is actually starting to combine a bit - things like "more +xy"). L3 (English) is by far the weakest language. I find this really puzzling as she has been attending nursery 5 days/week for the past 2 years.

We have a Salt assessment coming up but I am not that hopeful that the Salt will have a lot of experience with children with a language set up as ours.

Also, I have the gut feeling the speech delay is not caused by the three language - I rather suspect that DD has S&L issues and just happens to grow up with 3 lanuages iyswim...

Is there by any chance anybody here who has some experience with this?

We wonder if we should drop L1 & L2 and just focus on L3 (English) - after all this is the language DD really needs in her every day life. But I worry about taking L1 (in effect her MT away from her)?

Any ideas anybody?

TIA

Hi Elif, at work right now so not really time to respond but will come back to you later. DD is bilingual with speech delay (turned out to be ASD in her case) and we had to worry for a long time about whether to drop one of her languages but she has pulled through. Will come back later with more info.

thanks - much appreciated :)

DO NOT DROP ANY LANGUAGES!

I don't have much time to post but I am a SALT working in a multilingual area and dropping a language would be disastrous, I feel. Your dd's language ability is spread across her three languages: if you take a language out of the equation, it will reduce the vocabulary and language structures available to her.

It sounds to me as though your dd is very likely to be language delayed as she is only beginning to combine in her most dominant language. A failure to progress in a language that she has had exposure to for more than two years is also a sign that this is not about being multilingual.

What you need is to have all three languages independently assessed. This may sound impossible but at this age it's not fraught with the complications that it will be in later years when language is harder to pin down. It is relatively easy to screen language development in a different language at this stage of development but it does need to be done with a trained SALT and a native speaker working together. Ideally, it's best if there is a trained Speech and Language Therapy Assistant who speaks the L1/L2 but that is obviously not always possible.

It will take a while - a few sessions at least. Depending on how rare your other languages are, it might take more and you might need more specialist input (e.g. I feel confident I can assess in South Asian languages via an interpreter but I would really struggle with a tone language like Cantonese without more specialist support).

hello - we also have same situation in the family and as soon as we dropped the 2 and stuck just to english DS started linking sentences, his receptive improved and vocabulary improved.

Was monitored by child development team for a year and got ASD with S&L delay as primary issue in the end but its still questioned by some professionals as he seems to be only having issued with being understood and expressing himself. He is now 4 and a half and latest evaluation says he is equivalent to 4 for receptive and nearly 3 for expressive which is a lot for some but has the right support at school and home and we are working on shrinking the gap.

Since your DD is starting reception next year please look into statutory assessment and statement which is crucial to have in place when she starts school to ensure she is learning.

Most SALT dont see the languages being the cause for the delay but for a specific S&L disorder or ASD as in our case.

Good luck!

thanks for the replies so far!

I worry of course about her language development in general but especially in English. She has picked up L1 and L2 to some extend and can effortlessly switch between L1 and L2 (within her limitations) depending whether she deals with her dad or me. But it is completely beyond me why this has not been the case with English (as said - attending nursery daily and as her dad is often coming home quite late, she had far more exposure to English than to L2).

As we live over here, English the most important and she can easily live without L1 & L2. It would be lovely for her to become bil/trilingial but I just don't see it happening and therefore really start to think about dropping L1/L2.

@blueShark - your situation sounds similarish to ours. MayI ask you how old your DS was when you moved to one language and how long it took for him to improve? What was his level of the languages when you changed to a monolingual environment? Was English his strongest language before you changes to English only (in our case it is the weakest)? ALso, isn't it difficult to speak to your child in a language other than your MT?

Oh..

I'm really, really unsure about the idea of dropping languages.

If you drop her stronger languages, think about what happens to everything she has learned and acquired in that language? It will, literally, be lost. Not immediately, but it will.. This is not particularly good for language development.

When people do drop languages and communicate in one language, they will typically see a boost of words and grammatical constructions in the remaining language as there is greater input in that language occurring.

I will make a very crude example so that it is easier to explain:

Before dropping a language
L1 - 50 words
L2- 25 words
L3 - 10 words
Total = 85

After dropping a language
L1 - 0
L2 - 0
L3 - 25 words
Total = 25 words

This means that it might look like everything has improved in L3 (but it might have gone at this pace anyway) when actually a great deal has been lost .

This is very crude and of course there may be exceptions e.g. there is some debate about children with significant special needs and how they may learn language (which may have been the case, say, for Blueshark's dc).

However, in general it is not to be advised. The crucial thing here is that question - isn't it difficult to speak to your child in a language other than your MT? What does this do to your relationship? To family relationships? To the type of input you can give? It can be extremely confusing to a child on many different levels.

At 3, it is far from clear that your child has a significant special need LittleElif and you could risk giving up much for arguably little benefit, and maybe some disadvantage. To be honest, the majority of experts in the area do not really advocate "choosing" one language over another as it will usually result in a loss of learning about language.

I would realy be very, very careful about doing this.

Don't drop a language.
I'm a SALT.
A trilingual SALT.
I have a bilingual child with a communicatio disorder.

Denying her access to one of her languages would be tantamount ot shutting a do in her face.
Do not do it.
Be wary of any SALT who would suggest doing so.
No, better still, run a mile.

Although I completely agree with moondong and working9while5 and its the advise we got from one private experienced SALT, I was only sharing our experience and what worked for us.

DS was also weakest in English despite being born and raised in UK, attended nursery since 2 and a half and only exposed to the other languages at home and the frequent trips/holidays to the other 2 countries and visits in UK from relatives.

I switched to English when he was 3 and a half. And I can totally relate to what the professionals have said, he did regress vocabulary wise and also in receptive language but within 3 months he blossomed in English making his life easier in nursery and now in school.

He was at single words level with the other 2 languages and some learnt phrases when we switched to just english. And speaking english rather than MT was not difficult as neither myself or my husband speak the others language fluently and to be honest we are only consistent in speaking to DS in English between us we switch between languages.

My younger one also speaks english only which is of further benefit to my son.

Interesting. We are only bilingual and I have wondered about the same. DD will most likely have difficulties with language in general.

For the experts: I thought that studies show that bilingualism is always beneficial, but it's not clear if this is the same for tri-linguism.

Any more knowledge on this? You could always consider two languages and drop L2.

thanks!

I totally see where you are coming from, moondog and working9while5, and I do not really want to drop any language. But DD seems to be only really able to pick up languages that we speak at home (and even those are behind). She doesn't pick up English from nursery. I really wonder how this is supposed to work in the long run, also with school starting next year... how could DD possibly cope? and what would be the best way foreward?

The question is what is going on at nursery. It sounds like she needs more stimulation there.

In the area I work, multilingual families are the norm. In the past when children had more "in clinic" therapy it would not have been uncommon for a family to be having therapy on targets in the home language(s) at one level and therapy in English at another level e.g.

L1 - developing her ability to combine words together, maybe increasing 2 word phrases to 3 word phrases (for example)
L2 - developing understanding of 2 word phrases
L3 - developing single word understanding and use

Sadly, with cuts etc, this doesn't happen much anymore, but I think it was good practice.

What you need is specific targets to be set for each area by a SALT who is able to assess each language (through an interpreter is fine). Ideally, nursery will take ownership and responsibility of the community language (working on SALT targets) or someone else (so it is not confusing for her for you to suddenly start speaking English to her).

It can be done!

Her home languages are the foundation for her community language. Start drilling holes in it, or removing whole portions, and it will be harder for her to engage with English.

The only exceptions I have ever seen, to be honest, relate to families who are unwilling or unable to support work on the home language at home and where specialist help to develop is needed and only available through school. Sadly, these children often lose out on family relationships e.g. with cousins and grandparents and a sense of their cultural identity.

another think crossed my mind: we do not have family around, i.e. DH is the only one using L2 with DD. likewise, I am the only one using L1 with her. so these languages are pretty much a one-way-street. DD doesn't see people round her speaking these languages with each other.

Could this also affect her language development???

Well, I grew up speaking one of my languages 10 000 miles away from any others, back in the 60s and 70s. No internet, dvds or stuff like that in those days.

Obviously she won't be exposed to such a wide range of vocabulary or language registers. You need ot make an effort to seek out resources like books and dvds, and if possible find other speakers of your language(s).

Hi littleElif, I'm back . Our story, well, basically DD having probs in nursery school aged 3, talking but not really communicating and not talking at all in community language despite considerable exposure. Initial assessment was by MT speech therapist who pointed out significant language problems. She felt that DD was disadvantaged by underexposure to mother tongue and advised dropping French, but admitted that she wasn't really qualified to talk about bilingualism (her kids were bilingual but she admitted she didn't know how it would work with a child with S&L delay). Roll on a bit and we were fortunate to find a bilingual speech therapist who pointed out that DD was definitely distinguishing the languages even if she wasn't particularly speaking in French (she tried to, that was the thing. Wrong words but she was attempting to respond IYSWIM). Roll on another year and she is now sufficiently able to do English at home and French at school. I mainly work with her in English at school it's all in French. However, she now goes to a special school because she was eventually dx'd ASD. Main thing is that she is fully bilingual, just with big delays and probs in both langs. BUT as Moondog says, had we stopped one of her langs we would have totally shut her off from that community. Now if her little bro has playdates or I have friends over she has at least got a notion of what is going on.
Also worth bearing in mind that you have no idea how much English she does or doesn't understand...we thought DD had hardly any at all and then she suddenly came out with complete sentences..

Sorry this is a bit garbled but my little one is pulling on my arm!

Brio
x

thanks again for all the replies, esp moondog and working - found it really helpful and encouraging :)

talked to nursery to arrange meeting with DD's key worker to get a really detailed picture of her English; they will also write down some observations for salt. will see what the salt thinks and will probably take things from there but I am sure I will be back here for more advice ;-)

@brio: really glad the you DD eventually worked out the two languages :)