bilingualism, GDD and speech therapy

[alexpolismum]

Does anyone know of any research into children with developmental delay in bilingual families?

Or have any personal experience of this?

My son has developmental delay, and we are a bilingual (English and Greek) family. We have been advised by both his consultant and his speech therapist to speak in only one language to him.

I have 2 other children, who are both fully bilingual. I speak to them exclusively in English, while my dh speaks to them in Greek. Having only one home language (as ds2's specialists advise) would cause problems with their bilingualism, and I am not convinced of the need to switch to a monolingual family. Ds2 already shows signs of understanding some words in both languages, albeit only a few.

When asked, both specialists admitted they had no experience of bilingualism, although plenty of experience of children with SN.

I've no experience of bilingualism related to gdd but living in bilngual household I can understand your reluctance to lose this for your children-would definitely research further-it may be justa seemingly logical assumption that hasn't been tested and may not stand up..

Hi! I wish I got a penny for every time a professional told me to speak GErman to our children (we live in Germany, dh speaks German with them).

ds1 and ds2 have ASD. ds1 never had a problem with language aquisition, understood and seperated both language at the age of two. ds2 still doesnt seperate the languages now (he is 3.75). with both boys, a lot of their problems (both language as well as behaviour wise) have been blamed on them growing up bilingual. something which apparently is too much for young children.

just yesterday I had a friend over who also has a son with DS. my friend is FRench and speaks only FRench. She too has had lots and lots of comments about it.

at ds1's preschool there is a little boy with DS. Mum speaks GErman, dad speaks English. He understands both.

I find it very hard to believe that our children are overwhelmed by growing up with two languages, when there a so many regions around the world where that is completely the norm....parts of Wales, France, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, India...I could go on and on. so why is it alright for the children (with special needs or not) to be bilingual, but if we do it than we are overburdening our children?

However, I do treat ds1,2 and 3 slightly differently. as I said, ds1 has no problems seperating the languages but does tend to speak 'GErmish' with me quite a lot. I know it's just him being lazy and I ask him to speak in proper English with me. ds3 is only 22 months but is already seperating the languages, which means I will do the same as with ds1.

ds2, I am sooo glad he is FINALLY talking at all. He understands what I say to him but he speaks mainly German and just would not get it if I ask him to speak English with me. If his English develops as he gets older then great. But I will not force it in him but will continue to speak only English with him.

The mentioned French friend is doing the same with her ds. he will only speak German (he is 8), but she continues to speak only French with him.

Sooo, unless you think yourself that it is too much for your ds, I personally would continue with both languages.

did you know that in the 70's many psychologists believed that children growing up bilingual are more at risk at becoming schizophrenic?!?

bilingualism linked with schizophenia?!? That's a good one! First time I've heard that!

I've had people tell me before with my other two children to stop using 2 languages. Both are NT, obviously comfortable with both languages, both with a reasonable level of fluency based on their ages. They speak English to me (consistently) and Greek to dh. No problems at all, no reason to stop bilingualism, and yet people still say it. Nursery keyworkers, first school teacher, MIL, all kinds of people. Why???

However, with ds2, there is a problem, as he has developmental delay. He doesn't speak at all yet, but he clearly understands some things in both languages (simple things like: yes, no, come here, eat, drink, pick up the toy, give it to mummy/ daddy). As he understands these things in both languages, I can't understand why we shouldn't continue to build on his vocab in both languages. The specialists have said it will confuse him and that I am making his problems worse.

I really dont think it will confuse him if you are that consistent and only speak with him in English and your dh only uses Greek.

I know of a few bilingual families where the parents would, depending on the situation, use this or that language. i.e. if there were other people around who perhaps dont understand that language, the'd use the other. It might work with nt children, but not with children who have language and communication problems anyway.

comments still annoy me, but I let them go in one ear and out the other.

I am obviously not a professional with experience that area, but I do think that as a mum we know if our child can cope with having both languages and wouldnt opt to do something which isnt good for one of our dcs.

were the profs suggesting that the second language should only be dropped for your ds2 or for all dcs? just imagine how your other dcs would feel if all of a sudden one parent start speaking a different language?

well, since they said "use only one language at home" I presume they meant for all the children, although I don't think they'd really thought it through that much, and the conversations were both about ds2.

We are very consistent. In fact, I also speak to dh in English at home when the dc are around, and he speaks to me in Greek in front of them. So they consistently hear one language with one person. Obviously they have heard both of us speak the other language, out and about, with relatives on either side, etc, but never with them, and only when socially necessary.

I have no professional knowledge or personal experience but bilingualism is a subject I'm interested in because my family lost their first language (Scottish Gaelic) a couple of generations ago and I have always regretted that. I think you have got a lot of comments about the bilingualism holding your DCs back because there is a lot of prejudice and ignorance about using other languages in this country. Obviously when a child has SN which affect language you need to take this into account but if your ds2 understands both equally, I can't see that bilingualism is an obvious problem. It is possible that the medics were just speaking from the default prejudice position. Did you know there is a bilingual families area on MN where you might find people with experience or who know of experienced health professionals?

Alex, these peopeel are talking absolute bilge.
There is no evidence whatsoever for their ill informed opino which if taken would ride roughshod over your family dyamics.

For the record, I am a trilingual s/lt whose children are being brough up bilingually (as was I) One also has a communication disorded. I'd sooner chop off my left arm than further restrict her access to the community she lives in by speaking only one language to her.

Thankyou moondog, it's good to hear it from a professional with personal experience in this area .

I hadn't realised that this sort of prejudice against bilingualism would be so widespread, so common. I must have been living in a sheltered little bubble!

I will continue to follow my instincts and keep up both languages.

Most of the world is bilingual. It's the monolinguals who are the odd ones out.
God yes, ignore and carry on as yuo were.

Hi
Greenspan wrote an article on bilingual stuff for children with developmental delays...I have it somewhere
Email me on [email protected] and I can send you the article (don't think it's online- my friend wrote it with him so she gave me an electronic copy...

moondog my son hardley gets any salt at school what can i do about it they have someone once a week to advice ds2 is 5.7 non verbal.

Thanks again RGO.
Hadn't looged on for a while so didn't see this.
Sprouts, who not arrange a meeting to ask?
Onve a week contact time is better than many places.

Hi, I'm in exactly same situation as you - bilingual (czech- english) two older children ok, third with gdd. I have been pushed by almost everybody to switch to English, however have done my own research and don't agree- and in the end was supported by good private psychologist experienced with gdd and two languages to follow my instinct. Ds now has about 20 words, mostly English, but understands me. Altough I am so happy for bim to speak anything I do not 'correct' him into Czech and use the words he knows in English and than repeat in Czech. I find it very difficult and unnatural to speak fully English... New studies do not show speech delay in bilongual children,just a pity that salt keep saying this. Hope all goes well for you.

Hi babiki,

thanks for that. I know what you mean - I too would be glad to hear ds2 speak at all - in either language! He shows clear signs of understanding some things in both, though, so I have hopes! My older two very rarely use any Greek words with me (when they do, it's usually something for which there is no English equivalent because it relates to something particularly Greek). But when it does happen, I don't tend to correct them, I just use the English term in my own sentence. I don't know if this is the right thing to do or not, it's just what seemed natural to me. I also wouldn't feel natural speaking fully Greek to my children, I know just what you mean.

It's good to hear from other people with experience of this, of course, but sometimes I can't help thinking it would be nice to have some support from the professionals ds2 sees. Why all this negativity towards bilingualism?!

Hi there! I had the same question a couple of years ago, when DS (now 6) was diagnosed with ASD. Thanks also to moondog's invaluable advice, I kept speaking to DS, who has a language delay/disorder, in my own language, and ex-H kept speaking English. DS's two languages have improved in unison, and I think having two languages has improved his mental flexibility. DS has gone through a phase of switching languages according to the parent, then he went through a phase, when he started school, of speaking only English, even though he understood what I would tell him in my language. Now, to my great joy, he has started to ask how you say this or that in Italian, and to put together more sentences in my language.
Obviously, this is just my own personal experience, but I believe that having two languages is helping, rather than hindering, DS's language acquisition.

I took my son to his therapy session this morning, and I've come back feeling so cross!

"Why are you continuing with 2 languages? I thought we said you were going to stick to one language!"
"No," I said "YOU said one language, I chose to continue with 2."

I started to ask her about the evidence and research she had showing that bilingualism was damaging, but she wouldn't let me get a word in, and I had to listen to a harangue about how I was being selfish and not putting ds2's needs first, how I was making his life difficult, confusing him and even actively damaging his chances in life by continuing with bilingualism. Bla bla bla.

I'm going to continue, of course, but I just needed to write that down, to help me to calm down a bit.

have just found an interesting essay on bilingualism in SN children, if anyone is interested here

How irritating and moreover, how unprofessional to offer advice which has no basis.
Do these people offer anything useful to you? If not, stop going.
You have struck gold with your article. Colin Baker is a world authority on bilingualism (and has a bilingual family himself as I know as he is affiliated to my university.)

hello again! I am cross on your behalf too! and I am also expecting to get more comments from our paed as well. it is so irritating how some people think they know it all and expect you to follow every single bit of their advice.

the autism team which supports us at home recently told me of a case where funding for a child was threatend to be stopped if the mum didnt start speaking German at home (we are in GErmany and this was a polish or russian migrant family). that child was a nv autistic child and they believed that that the two languages were hindering the child to progress. that poor mum had to give in and drop her mother tongue in order to get funding for her child!

sending you lots of strength to continue

moondog I don't want to stop going completely, because ds2 has been making some progress. He was completely non-verbal before we started, and he has started to produce more sounds and say "mam" to me. Of course, I don't know if he would have done this anyway. But they also help him with his fine motor skills (he has hypotonia) and he has learnt how to use a fork and pick up small items like lego bricks and pencils.

However, I have no intention of following their advice with regards to language!

Re Colin Baker - I have found a huge list of articles and books, etc on Bilingualism and its various aspects by him. They all look fascinating! He is part of a Centre for Research into Bilingualism, which I didn't even know existed. I am actively involved in languages (am a professional translator) and this is like discovering a gold mine for me!

outnumbered it's so depressing to see how widespread this attitude is. Strength for you too to deal with your paed!