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Sydney speech pathologists helping adults and children speak for themselves.

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My child is learning two languages: what do I need to know about bilingual development?

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More than half of my clients are growing up in homes where English is not the first or only language. I think it’s a great thing. Bilingualism is a tremendous asset living on this increasingly connected planet. We need more of it in Australia.

But there’s a catch: with bilingualism comes a whole host of worries and concerns about what is best for a child’s language development.

All families I work with want the best for their kids. But there is so much conflicting information out there about bilingual language development. Some of it is based on old ideas. Others are myths that are not supported by the evidence. This makes it hard for parents to make informed decisions about important issues for toddlers and pre-school children.

At least once a week, I’m asked for my views on questions like these:

  • Will my child get confused between the two languages?
  • Should one parent should speak the “home” language, and the other parent speak English?
  • Should parents speak to their child in English, even if they are not fluent themselves?
  • Should parents send their child to an English-speaking pre-school or daycare centre before school?

So here’s what the peer-reviewed research evidence says:

1. Parents should speak their native language with their children

  • As noted above, bilingualism is an asset – not a liability.
  • Many parents want to maintain their cultural heritage. Language is an important part of that heritage.
  • For parents who cannot speak English fluently, speaking broken English to a child may do more harm than good. It is much better for the child to hear a language being spoken fluently, especially in the early years.
  • Children from homes in which the first language was in addition to English show stronger cognitive outcomes than children from immigrant homes in which only English was spoken (Winsler et al., 2014).
  • There is some evidence that higher order language comprehension and literacy skills transfer from one language to another. For example, children who are good at reading in one language tend also to be good at reading in English (Oller et al., 2002, although it’s worth noting that the languages studied in this study were both European).
  • There is some evidence that interventions to help a child read in their first language can have positive effects on the child’s reading in English (Goldenberg et al., 2011).
  • There is evidence that immigrant families who can speak their parents’ native language have better family relationships and stronger ethnic identities that those who cannot, and that good family relationships and strong ethnic identity are positively related to other outcomes including academic achievement (e.g. Oh & Fuligni, 2010, Tseng & Fuligni, 2000).

2. There is no “one-size fits all” approach to raising bilingual children

Home differs in:

  • the balance of languages;
  • the number of speakers who use each language;
  • the proportion of each language that comes from native speakers;
  • how much adults talk and read to children;
  • the number and age of the children in the household; and
  • the complexity of language used.

Bilingual children who attend school tend to use their first language at home and English at school and outside the home. Young bilingual children with siblings at school are likely to have more advanced English and weaker native language skills than children the same age without older siblings. Childcare arrangements are another source of variability in language development.

In short, bilingual children are extremely varied in their levels and profiles of dual language skills.

3. Speaking two languages at home does not confuse children. Children can learn two languages at the same time

  • Back in the 1990s, people thought that speaking two languages to your children would confuse them. We now know that’s wrong.
  • Infants are good at distinguishing languages. If they hear two languages at home, they develop two separate systems for speech sounds, words and word meanings, and grammar. Of course, the languages influence each other. But kids don’t get confused (e.g. Byers-Heinlein et al., 2010; Werker, 2012, Lin & Johnson, 2010).

4. Languages do not need to be kept separate for children to learn them

  • I often hear people say that one-parent should speak the home language and the other should speak English. There is no evidence to support this idea.
  • Studies show that the degree of mixing languages is not related to the children’s skills in their home language or English (e.g. Place et al., 2011, Hoff et al., 2011).
  • There is no evidence that mixing languages at home stops children from realising they are hearing two languages or acquiring them. However, there is some limited evidence to suggest that parents should try to avoid mixing up the languages within individual sentences/utterances when talking with 18-month olds (Byers-Heinlein, 2013).

5. Learning two languages takes longer than learning one

This seems obvious. But there were some small, early studies that suggested that bilingual children acquire two languages at the same rate monolingual children acquire one. (e.g. Pearson et al., 1993). This view may have contributed to the over-diagnosis of language learning impairment in bilingual children.

We now know that bilingual children lag slightly behind monolingual children of the same age in their vocabulary and grammatical development when measured in each language separately (e.g. Bialystock & Feng, 2011, Gathercole & Thomas, 2009, Marchman et al., 2010, Vag et al., 2009).

We also know that bilingual children’s phonological (speech sound) skills and narrative skills are closer to monolingual levels than their vocabulary and grammar (Oller et al., 2007; and Paradis & Kirova, 2014). This is why I always test narrative ability and screen speech sounds when assessing bilingual children for possible language learning impairments.

Compared to monolingual children, it’s more common for bilingual children’s receptive language abilities (understanding of language) to be significantly stronger than their expressive language skills (Ribot, 2014).

6. It can take a long time for bilingual children to “catch up”

In grammar, if bilingual children are exposed to continued, consistent and quality exposure to two languages spoken fluently, they tend to catch up to monolingual children by the age of 10 years (Gathercole & Thomas, 2007).

Even adult bilinguals tend to have smaller vocabularies in each of their languages than monolinguals, although there are obviously exceptions. The size of the vocabulary gap diminishes with age (Hoff et al., 2014).

7. Bilingual children often score within the normal range on language tests in their “dominant language”

Diminished exposure to a language affects language acquisition. Two-year olds with a balanced input of two languages lag significantly behind monolinguals in each language. Children’s skills in each language are significantly related to the proportion of their input that is in that language (Hoff et al., 2012; Pearson et al., 1997).

There is some evidence that even 80% exposure to one language is not sufficient to reach the level of a typically developing monolingual child (DeAnda et al., in press). However, although learning two languages takes longer than acquiring one, it does not take twice as long.

8. Bilingual children can have different strengths in each language

For example, bilingual children:

  • may know words to do with things at home in their first language;
  • may know words to do with things for school in English; and
  • may have equal comprehension in each language, but better expressive language skills in one language – hence the commonly seen receptive-expressive gap in young bilingual children (e.g. Gibson, et al., 2012).

9. The quality and quantity of bilingual children’s input in each language influences their rate of language development in each language

  • Children develop language more rapidly in the language they hear more (e.g. Hoff et al., 2012).
  • As children’s relative levels of exposure change, language skill levels change as well. For example, young children who start going to a high quality English-speaking childcare centre, tend to improve their English skills, although the quality of the input is just as, if not more, important than the quantity (e.g. Grüter et al., 2014).
  • In theory, the use of a varied vocabulary, complex and varied syntax and child-centred speech in a language should be positive predictors of a child’s growth in that language. Evidence suggests that exposure to a language in interactive book-reading with fluent speakers supports language growth, but passively watching TV in a language isn’t as helpful (e.g. Rowe et al., 2012; and Patterson et al., 2004).
  • Hearing a language from several different speakers is more supportive of language development than the same number of hours of language exposure from a few speakers (Place et al., 2011), though we’re not sure why.
  • Interestingly, even in families where the parents are fluent in English, there is evidence that when parents talk with their child in their native language, they use a more diverse vocabulary than when they talk to their children in their second language (Hof et al., 2013).
  • Exposure to English outside of the home through friends and organised activities and also through media is a significant predictor of language growth in English (Pardis, 2011).

Bottom line

Giving bilingual parents practical advice about their child’s language development is difficult. Parents face real challenges for which there are often no easy solutions.

Acquisition of a heritage language is a legitimate goal and has many benefits for the child, the family and society as a whole. Acquisition of strong English skills by school entry is also an important goal, which is hard to attain if the parents don’t speak fluent English themselves.

In countries like Australia, where English is the dominant language, we know that poor English skills at school entry places a child at increased risk for school failure (e.g. Han, 2012). The weight of data to date suggests that young bilingual children who will attend an English-speaking school in the future should:

  • speak with their parents in a language or languages in which their parents are fluent (rather than broken English); and
  • if possible, be exposed to English outside the home, preferably spoken fluently by native speakers, in the toddler and pre-school years.

An optimal environment for English language development is exposure-rich, grammatically varied English of the sort spoken by educated, native English speakers. As a society, we are a long way from being able to offer this to bilingual children from all cultural and economic backgrounds. But that’s what we should shoot for. Interactive technology may make this easier to achieve. But nothing is as good as face-to-face human interaction which, after all, is the basis of language development.

Related articles:

Principal source: Hoff, E., & Core, C. (2015). What Clinicians Need to Know about Bilingual Development.  Seminars in Speech and Language, 36(2), 89-99.

Image: http://tinyurl.com/zjm2pd8

Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Rhodes, Strathfield and all other suburbs of Sydney’s Inner West.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).

Let’s cut to the chase: when should I seek help from a speech pathologist for my child?

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Speech pathologists help people with communication problems. But many of us are not very good at explaining what we do in Plain English:

  • We use too many long, pointless words.
  • We call ourselves different things in different countries.
  • We can’t agree on what to call some communication impairments.

And we’re not alone. Psychologists, doctors and psychiatrists use different words and phrases to talk about communication issues. It’s not always clear whether we’re all talking about the same thing.

This is a big problem: it’s confusing to people and families who need help.

There’s an urgent need for speech pathologists to give people better information about common communication impairments. In this article, we answer some questions about speech pathology and common communication problems.

We want to help you understand what we do and how we can help.

1. Are speech pathologists, speech therapists and speech-language pathologists the same thing?

Yes.

2. What do speech pathologists do?

Most speech pathologists help people with communication impairments. Some of us also help people with swallowing and feeding impairments.** An impairment is a disability.

3. What does “communication impairment” mean?

To survive and to take part in society, we need information: facts and knowledge. One way we get and pass on information is by communicating with others. Communication means sending information to, and receiving information from, others.

Some people have problems sending and/or receiving information. We call these problems communication impairments.

4. What are the most common communication impairments?

Developmental language disorders and speech sound disorders. They affect about 5-8% of pre-school children. If untreated, they can lead to lots of problems including with behaviour and social interaction, reading and writing, school and work success, and mental health.

(a) Are language and speech the same thing?

No.

One way we communicate with other people is through language. Language is understanding and using words and sentences to receive and to send information. We can do this by speaking and listening, reading and writing, or by sign-language. Language includes:

Speech means using our voices to make words and sentences. Speech involves both language skills and motor skills (using nerves, muscles and body parts to make speech sounds). For example, to say “banana” we need to coordinate our breath, vocal chords, lips, soft palate, jaw, tongue and teeth to articulate the three “beats” – ba-na-na – in a way that others can understand.

You can have good language skills, but impaired speech skills. For example, you might be able to write or sign fluently, but not be able to speak clearly.

(b) Developmental language disorders

These are problems understanding and/or using language to communicate with others.

Confusingly, speech pathologists and others can’t agree on a single name to call it. Different people in different places use different terms, e.g.

  • language delay;
  • language disorder;
  • specific language impairment;
  • language learning impairment; and
  • developmental dysphasia (or aphasia).

All these names have their pros and cons. In line with recent academic and professional efforts to reach agreement, we prefer the term “developmental language disorders”.

(c) Speech sound disorders

These are problems saying speech sounds correctly and being understood. If strangers can’t understand your child’s speech, they might have a speech sound disorder.

Speech sound disorders include:

  • not being able to say some sounds. You can read more about when children are expected to be able to say different consonants here;
  • developmental and unusual error patterns called “phonological processes”. You can read more about 10 common error patterns here; and
  • articulation problems, like lisps. You can read more about lisps here and here.

5. When should you see a speech pathologist about your child’s speech-language development?

When any of the following is true:

6. How do speech pathologists assess communication impairments?

Speech pathologists should get their information from more than one place to make sure they understand the scope of the problem and its effects:

Speech pathologists should look at two things when they assess people with language or speech problems:

  • the skills that are impaired; and
  • the effect of the person’s communication impairments on their participation in the real world.

These are different things. For some people, a minor impairment (e.g. a lisp) can have a big impact on their quality of life. For others, even a severe communication impairment may not cause many problems.

7. What communication skills do speech pathologists assess?

Often, speech-language assessments are done in stages. We look for the big issues first, then zero in on specific problems.

8. Can children have both developmental language disorders and speech sound disorders?

Yes. We know that:

  • around 15% of 3 year olds have a speech sound issues; and
  • 50-75% of these children also have a developmental language disorder.

You can read more about this here.

9. What if my child speaks more than one language?

Speaking more than one language:

  • does not cause language learning impairments; and
  • is an advantage for many children.

At 30 months of age, children who have at least 60% exposure to English will usually have similar language skills to a native English speaker. Children need around 5-7 years exposure to a language to be fluent in it.

A true language impairment will affect all languages a child speaks.

You can read more about language impairments and children who speak more than one language here.

10. Can children with language disorders also have other issues?

Yes. Developmental language disorders and speech disorders frequently happen at the same time as other difficulties, including problems with:

In these cases, it can be a good idea for your child to be assessed by other relevant professionals as well as a speech pathologist, e.g.

  • a paediatrician for a developmental assessment;
  • an audiologist for hearing and auditory processing assessments;
  • an occupational therapist for sensory, gross and fine motor assessments; and
  • a psychologist for a cognitive or reading assessment.

Some children with developmental language disorders and speech sound disorders also have developmental disorders or life-long disabilities, e.g. some children with:

  • moderate-severe profound hearing loss (although this typically only affects oral language – not signing or speech – if the child is exposed to signing early in life);
  • intellectual disabilities;
  • Down Syndrome;
  • Klinefelter Syndrome; or
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder.

11. My child might be stuttering. Where can I find information about evidence-based treatments?

Stuttering is fairly common, and often starts between the ages of 2 and 3 years. There are some great treatments available for pre-schoolers. Stuttering gets harder to treat with age.

You can read more about stuttering and other fluency disorders here. We don’t think there is any link between developmental language disorders and stuttering. However, we know that 30-40% of children who stutter also have a speech sound disorder.

12. My child has voice problems. Should I be concerned?

Voice disorders are probably not picked up as often as they should be and can have a big impact on a child’s quality of life.

You can read more about voice disorders here.

Bottom line

Speech-language communication impairments:

  • are the most common of childhood disabilities;
  • are often not picked up early enough; and
  • can have serious effects on a child’s social, school and later work goals, participation and achievements.

Speech pathologists (myself included) need to do a better job telling the public about common childhood communication impairments. We need to:

  • agree on our terms;
  • cut out the jargon and speak in Plain English; and
  • give families:
    • quality information based on the latest research evidence; and
    •  practical guidance on when, where and how to seek help.

If you have any concerns about your child’s communication skills, please contact your local speech pathologist for a chat.

Principal sources:

  1. Bishop, D.V..M., Snowling, M.J., Thompson, P., & Greenhalgh, T. (2016). CATALISE: A Multinational and Multidisciplinary Delphi Consensus Study. Identifying Language Impairments in Children. PLOS One, 11(7). Full text can be accessed here.
  2. Prelock, P.A., Hutchins, T., Glascoe, F.P. (2008). Speech-Language Impairment: How to identify the Most Common and Least Diagnosed Disability of Childhood. Medscape Journal of Medicine, 10(6), 136.

** People use many of the same nerves, muscles and body parts for both speech and swallowing. But they use them in very different ways. At Banter, we focus on speech and language and do not treat feeding or swallowing disorders. For people with swallowing or feeding needs, we are always more than happy to refer them on to speech pathologists with this expertise.

Image: http://tinyurl.com/zbtpfav

Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Rhodes, Strathfield and all other suburbs of Sydney’s Inner West.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).

Defrazzle and reconnect: tips for families to talk to each other to stimulate language development

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The irony of spending time away from my family to write this post about increasing communication at home isn’t lost on me.  Nor is the truth about how hard it is to do this stuff in practice!

I suspect our family is fairly typical for Sydney.  Both parents work, juggling child-minding with help from family.  Kids at different schools, with different sports and other activities.  Homework.  Volunteer work.  Kids’ friends’ birthdays every second weekend – sometimes more than one.  Visiting grandparents whenever we can.  Weekends eaten up with chores we couldn’t squeeze into the week. Criss-crossing Sydney, always stuck in traffic.  Always en route to or from somewhere.

Every now and then, when we discover a magical gap in our schedule, all we want to do is come home, switch on the TV, distract the kids with iPads and do nothing at all.  Now, once in while, that’s perfectly fine.  But, too often, too easily, that once in a while becomes the norm, and we stop talking to each other about anything other than ‘disciplinary matters’ and the logistics of the next event in our overstuffed-calendar.

Why does it matter?

As we’ve previously said, children are hard-wired to learn language.  They don’t need flashcards, educational apps or expensive training systems, and they don’t learn language efficiently from passively watching screens.  Instead, the key in how children learn to talk is obvious, free and simple: talking with them.  Conversation.

Talk contributes not just to language development, but to children’s expanding knowledge of the world and their willingness to talk to others.  Studies show that children exposed to fewer words, and a higher percentage of negative statements (e.g. “No. Don’t do that, Stop that!”), tend to have lower vocabularies and IQ scores (e.g. Hart & Risely, 1999).  In other words, the amount and quality of talking with your kids can have lasting impact on children’s language development – especially during their first three years when they are most dependent on you doing most of the conversational heavy-lifting.

So how can we do it in the real world?

Here are 8 ideas to kindle or rekindle real communication with your family.  None is rocket science.  But they all take conscious thought and commitment to pull off:

1. Eat together: even if it’s just for 20 minutes and not every day.  Make it a priority.  Turn off your TV, phones and other devices.  Talk about daily events, share ups and downs.  Take it in turns.  Ask specific questions, not simply “how was your day today?”.  Studies show that families who eat together as a family have children who have fewer problems when those teenage years hit.

2. Host a monthly family games night: take it in turns to choose the board game.  Start with all those games you’ve received for kids’ birthdays and never used.

3. Set a weekly reading night: turn off the TV, turn on some music (traditional jazz is a big hit in my family), get everyone to sit in a room together (any room will do) and read anything they want for pleasure.  Paper books only.  No school texts or academic papers allowed.  Leave plenty of time to discuss what you’ve read and learned.

4. Choose a walk morning/night: take advantage of daylight saving to explore your local neighbourhood.  Take in the sights, sounds, smells, and textures all around you.  Discuss anything and everything – bugs, rocks, leaves, flowers, overgrown hedges, unpainted fences, poorly-crafted graffiti, roadworks, and whether Mrs Carruthers down the road is a witch or just misunderstood.

5. Family membership: whether it’s a local footy club or the Australian Symphony Orchestra, subscribe to something that will get you all out and about at least a few times a year.

6. Public transport day: choose a day a month – we always go for Sunday – and catch a train, bus and/or ferry to somewhere you’ve never been before.  Don’t over-research it.  Just go somewhere, then look around.

7. Family project: now, before you roll your eyes, it doesn’t have to be lame.  Nor does it have to be expensive.  Design and plant a new garden bed.  Cook a meal – everyone contributing ingredients.  Corral all those thousands of digital photos on your phones into a personal website or an album-gift for the relatives.

8. Kids’ choice play: as a Hanen-certified speech pathologist, I would be remiss if I didn’t recommend getting down on the floor to the kids’ eye level and following their lead as they choose and play a game of their choice.  Following a child’s lead is a powerful way to help him or her initiate interactions; and children are more likely to learn language talking about things of interest to them. Allow your children free play time – not everything has to have an educational purpose.

Principal source: Hirsh-Pasek, K. & Golinkoff, R.M., with Eyer, D (2003). Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: how our children really learn – and why they need to play more and memorise less. Rodale, New York, New York.

Related articles:

Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Rhodes, Strathfield and all other suburbs of Sydney’s Inner West.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).

FAQ: how to check whether a language, reading or learning program is worth your cash

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There are hundreds of products and services out there for children with language, reading and/or learning difficulties.  Some are breathtakingly expensive.  Many are marketed with flashy brochures and websites, complete with photos of happy kids and glowing parent testimonials.  But looks can be deceiving – especially on the Internet.  Not all programs are backed up by objective research proving they work.  Some use marketing tactics that prey on parents’ fears and hopes for their children.  And cost alone is not a reliable sign of quality.

So how can you tell whether a product or service recommended for your child has been proven to work?

1. Check out MUSEC’s Briefings:  Hands down, one of our favourite resources.  The Macquarie University Special Education Centre (MUSEC) publishes regular briefings as a community service to inform special educators, speech pathologists and others about the evidence-base for a range of educational services and products currently marketed in Australia, including:

Each briefing summarises a selected product or service, critiques the evidence-base supporting it, and advises whether they recommend it based on the evidence reviewed.

2. Ask a professional who is not getting a commission to sell you the product or service: Reputable health and education professionals will tell you:

  • if the product or service is backed by evidence (if they don’t know, they are trained in how to find out);
  • whether other treatments are available with better evidence and/or for a lower cost; and
  • whether they stand to receive a commission or other payment for recommending or selling you the product or service.

If you’re not sure whether the professional recommending the treatment is getting a commission, ask them.  If so, get a second opinion before opening your wallet.

So, before you fork out for a treatment or product that claims it can help your child with his or her language or learning difficulty, spend 10 minutes on the MUSEC site and run it by your trusted health or education professional.

Related articles:

Image: http://tinyurl.com/plbjlkl

Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Rhodes, Strathfield and all other suburbs of Sydney’s Inner West.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).