Bilingual Language Development and the Delayed Child

In the Puget Sound, we have a culturally and linguistically diverse population. Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin, Russian, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Somali are just a few of the languages that school-based speech therapists can encounter in the Seattle area. Young language learners can encounter a different language at home (and out in the community) than the language they hear in school. 

Parents of children with developmental delays, especially children who are non-verbal, worry that speaking two languages at home will confuse or even short-circuit language development. As if having a developmentally delayed child isn’t enough to worry about. This is a myth! 

Myth vs. Fact

Kelly Ibanez Arelleno, bilingual speech therapist of The Hola Clinic, helps us break it down in a cool infographic. Kelly's infographic lists reference sources at the end. Big takeaways for some of the families I serve:

Myth: Speaking two or more languages can confuse a child.

Fact: Even developmentally delayed kids can learn multiple languages. And in fact, the first language will support the second, and vice versa.

Myth: It's better for developmentally delayed kids to speak the language of the school at home, rather than the language of the community.

Fact: Families should speak the language they are most comfortable speaking, so as to give their children the richest possible linguistic models.  Also, children should be given the opportunity to speak the language of their community so they can interact with their community

Myth: Speaking a different language at home will set up a child who has delays already for language learning delays.

Fact: Research shows that speaking a different language at home can actually improve a child's ability to learn language.

What if my child has an Autism Diagnosis?

University of Washington’s Autism Center rolls up the research showing that raising a child with autism in a bilingual environment can support language development. This can net out in big benefits, including:

• More cooing and vocalizing in toddlers is a reliable indicator of and pathway to language development.

• More complex pretend play, which drives language development

• Greater use of gestures, which are pre-linguistic behaviors that signal/pre-figure language development

• Most importantly, caretakers speaking their own language are able to be more responsive, more emotionally nuanced, and use better linguistic models.

Resources:

Speech therapists and parents alike can find these resources online.

Kelly’s Facts & Myths Infographic can be found as a free download on Teachers Pay Teachers.

University of Washington’s handout “Bilingualism and Autism Spectrum Disorder: What the Research Tells Us” can be found online in PDF format.