ABA for a a bilingual 3 y.o, do we need to drop our second language?

[Wiolla]

Hello,

Originally misposted my message in Bilingual section, my apologies.

I would really appreciate any advice on or experience on how things may work out.

I have a 3 y.o who has been raised in a bilingual environment, sadly he is running a developmental delay and main issue speech and language (not just a late talker) which greatly affects his communication and social side with peers.

We are about to start and ABA programme for him and our consultant recommends against using a second language until DS is fluent in English. Same advice was given by a private psychologist.

Which of course breaks my heart as it means dropping my language, switching into English for at least couple of years and it feels so unnatural for me. However, I do not want my son to get stuck in his progress because of my own feelings, on the other hand it does make me sad and worried that I will have to speak a foreign language to my own child.

At the moment his Expressive English is more advanced than the other language but still way behind where he should have been even if to consider the bilingual component which may sometimes slow down things. His receptive language is about 6-8 months behind and general development is about 1 year behind, though not in all areas.

Any thoughts and ideas are welcome. Did anyone have a similar case?

I know the general consensus is to keep both languages.

I have a Dd with asd, very severe speech and language delay/disorder and we went down to one language only when she was 3.6.

wasn't an easy decision but she only had very little language and understanding in my language but no english (expressive and receptive) at all despite attending nursery since she had been 10 months.

she is 6 now and her speech and language is still very much behind (and always will be) but going down to 1 language made such a difference within a short time.

our main issue was the lack of English. we are in the UK and have no intention to moving back to our home country so we decided it was important that she makes progress in English. this only happened after we worked intensly on her English at home. as said before, she was not able to pick it up at nursery at all.

good luck with whatever you decide.

No. This is nonsense and they are advising you in contradiction of the available evidence. I speak S a BCBA and an s/lt working in a bilingual setting with many bilingual children. How tiresome and distressing to hear of oeipke who should know better talking such tripe.

Hi, we had to drop the second language when DS was 3.3. It was a very hard decision to make but very much like chocgalore said, DS understanding in my language was really poor. His English was just slightly better but as we live in the UK we needed to focus on him learning English. He is now 7 and although his language is not perfect he has progressed a lot. He has a dx of ASD.

moondog, I hear this a lot snd for that reason, we stuck to all languages until 3.5.
As said, Dd had no single English word by then (having been 2.5 years at nursery by then). I really do wonder if some children are genuinely unable to pick up more than one language esp with a severe speech/language impairment. within 2-3 months of changing to Englush Dd was speaking in short sentences and understanding improved as well. I don't think this would have been the case without changing to English only.

Thank you very much for your responses. In our case understanding is delayed but on pretty much the same level in English and my language. However, my native language is from completely different group of languages, not as close as English and French or German for example.

Moondog, how would you manage ABA in 2 languages? I think the main point here is to give DS a chance to catch up with English on his peers level via VB/ABA and so outside the classroom in every day life we would need to reinforce what we learn and since the programme is in English we would need to reinforce it in English.

Lack of langauge and understanding behind is the main cause of his social/communication problems. He is not too keen on peers, in one nursery where kids are of his age and younger he would parallel play and sometime pay the ball and observe the children play- that is as much as his play is developed. In the other nursery, he is more alone and less secure, kids are of his age and older there and quite active. He is a quiet child and not very assertive, if someone snatches a toy from him, he will look sad, but would not protest, I sometimes want to cry when I see this happen.

ABA consultant did say to exclude for couple of years and then to introduce it again, but it is a hard call especially for me as in this case my family will be excluded, though my mother in law will be very pleased, as she thinks this is a cause of all DS problems:(((

How do we manage? We just do! Principles are the same whatever the language. It is exceedingly difficult to withdraw/ introduce languages at different times. Once you stop speaking one you will rarely if ever be able to resurrect. I assume consultant is monolingual otherwise would not face said such a foolish thing. Most if the world is bi/multi lingual. Monolingual a are in the minority. One of my own children has communication issues. It would never have occurred to me to withdraw one of the languages of our family. Children with communication issues are already excluded in many eats. By denying then access to one of their family languages, you exclude then even more.

I have had many discussions online here about this with a poster called alexpolisman and I sent her some relevant research. Do a search for her posts and contact her. She will I am sure, pass it on.

No way on earth would ds1 have coped with 2 languages. He has struggled so much with understanding the function of speech at all, let alone dealing with two separate languages to get to grips with and distinguish between. When he began ABA 5 years ago his receptive language was close to nil and it took very intensive work to improve this, and then move him on to very basic expressive language.

Our bcba would have had a heart attack if we'd suggested introducing my mother tongue too!

But then he has a significant learning disability (before ABA we were told he would never say a word) and perhaps if a child is much more verbal and closer to peers academically it might not be so much of an issue.

No. Knowing more than one language gives you the ability to grasp linguistics and that enables you to learn about the rules of language and communication in an academic way if needed on top of the 'intuition'.

Professionals often don't like it because it is out of their scope/knowledge base. If he were a teenager unable to read or write and uninterested in language you'd be right to dismiss a second language as a priority, but learning as you develop is something quite different and should be encouraged.

Most if the kids I work with have significant learning disabilities. Sounds like some of these bcbas need to brush up on basic learning theory such as stimulus equivalence. They are advocating a stance which is contrary to the science and it is important to separate opinion from science because when that happens it's not ABA.

well the consultant is actually quite good, if it was some random expert I would just ignore his advice, however, he is very experienced and knowledgeable. I think there is a chance for DS to catch up with peers before school, or at least year 1. This is the primary target at the moment. I am just thinking if there is a chance of it, then probably it would make sense in a way. I suppose the option is ether to let him fall behind or speed him up. I am worried about his self-esteem and he is not pushy or very boisterous and being delayed makes him even more vulnerable.

I do have a personal example of my friend whose nephew was diagnosed almost autistic when he was in reception, he was very slow, delayed and was falling behind, then the school suggested to remove second language and his English just shoot up, he caught up with peers on all levels. He still understands the other language but is quite lazy to speak.

Ohhh how hard it is sometimes to make a right call. I spoke my language with DS since birth, but expressive was hardly progressive. 6 months of Portage therapy and his English suddenly appeared, he echoes but he also has spontaneous speech. He did go to the nursery a year before we started Portage and has 0 progress with expressive speech.

I do not think it will be possible to remove my language completely though. I will be speaking my language to a new baby, my mom is coming for 2 months soon and we talk on skype with my family quite a lot.

I am thinking of a compromise just now, maybe saying a sentence in English, but also saying it in my language. If I manage to safe my language in passive, then maybe there will be a chance to re-introduce speaking at a later stage. Do you think this could tactic could work? I used to use one-language one -parent approach.

Moondog, I tried to make a search, but did not find anything yet. Will try again, maybe will have a better luck.

ZZZZ I think this is the way ABA is structured, you need to continue outside tutoring using every opportunity. This is how I see it. May be I am wrong.

SisiterChristina, how is your son now? Is he talking? What about social aspect?

Chocgalor, once your DD's English picked up, did it improve her social interaction?

it did not make much of a difference for her social interaction. but she does have pretty severe ASD.

As I said, she was for 2.5 years at nursery in the UK and did not pick up any English (and I mean no English at all). I really do not get how someone can suggest that sticking to more than one language would have been to the benefit of DD. it was heartbreaking to see how she was totally unable to communicate at nursery - even at the most basic level.

By changing to English only and working on it with ABA and reinforcing it outside the formal sessions, she started to talk and to understand and was at last able to communicate her basic needs also at nursery (she wasn't able to do this before). Before changing to English only she only had a few single words. After consolidating the languages, she was speaking in short phrases within a couple of months.

Her speech and language is still very much delayed but at 6 she is speaking in sentences is able to have very basic conversations, is asking questions etc.

Interesting topic as we're also bilingual. I decided to drop my dd's home language when she started nursery 7 months ago and my experience is that she started picking up language quicker. It IS hard and it bothers me that she's not able to speak to my MIL but I have to do what's best for her in this moment in time.

I found it easy though as I'm more fluent in English myself than my mother tongue.

Op, do what's best for your son now... For me it was enabling her to communicate with her peers-and they happen to speak English so English it was.

Moondog, I'm sure a long holiday back home can help reintroduce home language

I have to say though that my dd understands simple phrases in my language such as sit down, be quite, give it to me/back, put this on, put it in the bin.... As these are useful when I'm outside and I don't want people understanding us

suppose this is the case zzzzz. DD also has moderate/severe LDs. I guess this might make things even more challenging.

Wiolla, ask the BCBA for evidence for his/her recommendation. If they have some, I would be glad to see it too! Have messaged you with the email of the lovely MNer who was having similar issues. Email her and ask her to share the research with you she was sent by a respected researcher in this field. She would be delighted to help.

chocgalore thank you for sharing your experience. DS is not severe, but he is certainly delayed. And if we did not have to start the school next year I probably would not be too worried, but starting school in our case means we would need to get him ready for this otherwise it will become too much of a shock.

Sammy, you could not have formulated the reason better, yes, communication with peers is the key here. He is 3 and it is not too obvious now, although gets a bit noticed and if this is still the same when he is 4 and will start affecting his self-esteem etc. Do you plan on reintroducing your language again at some point?

We have a baby coming in July, so I am planning to raise her /him bilingual and also there is a plan if all goes well to take them both to my country for couple of months next summer. So this should be beneficial. Our consultant also suggests we wait a bit longer with reception, until he is more mature and settled with main issues.

Zzzzz re IQ did you do the IQ test? I am not so sure where we are on the scale. As he seems to be brights. but who knows.

Moondog, when I was talking to the consultant I got a feeling that it was our particular case he was referring to and what would be good for DS in order to reach his main goals. I will ponder this question again when I get a chance to talk to him in person.

We also had to drop the first language for English when started ABA and it was a success. His language (English) started to progress very fast.
Now as he is older and is picking up on our native language naturally, but now he has a clear understanding when someone speaks English or different language. I can also translate for him and he is very interested in our first/native language. I understand that research and evidence can tell otherwise, but in our case it was a success.