Speech delay | Language Disorders | Forum

Hi Dilcia,

I hear your pain and we are in exactly same situation with my 27 months old daughter.  We are doing 100% OPOL with Russian from me and English from husbandnand it is very hard to make her repeat the words, although we are trying really hard and had been following all the speech pathologist’s recommendations. Her vocabulary is really small for her age (about 50 words and some simple phrases, but had been only 10 words  at 24 months) and she would not repeat the worlds. Sometimes she tries to repeat some easy words, but not clearly. She’d also call a few different things the same name which doesn’t mean anything in either language. We had her hearing checked and put in tubes,  however the improvement is hardly noticeable.  I’m not sure whether this problem has to do with 2 languages, I have a few friends raising bilingual kids and some of them have some sort of delay (not as much as my daughter) but some actually are quite advanced in both languages!

Also, I had been told a few times by friends and our family doctor (who raised 3 bilingual kids successfully): once they get it, they won’t stop. I’m still waiting for that moment but I’m not giving up just yet.  Just keep trying, 23 m.o. is still too young. Good luck!

Tatiana

Thank you Tatiana for tour encouraging words! I Am
Not giving up just yet :) I don't think he has 10 words in his vocab that everyone understands. Maybe 5

Melissa Brnjamin does the same. He understands everything in both languages, points to the right pictures on books or bring the right objects when asked. But he will NOT try to talk to us or repeat words back to us. I think he can't pronounce some sounds bc basic two syllables with the same consonants and vowels he will repeat back like "nana" "rara" etc but if I say "nano" "papu" change the vowels he won't say it back. Almost as if he can't make two different sounds in one word.

Today I said can you say pelota (ball) and he said "ball" the ask can you say pato (duck) all in Spanish of course and he said "duck" so I think he is choosing the easiest word to say when he does. He also knows things have two names bc he shows me an object I say (the word for the object) and immediately he shoe it to dad for him to say it in the other language. Hopefully like Tatiana said, one day he will just get it :)

Dilcia

Hello Worried Mothers,

Or should I say parents?

I have a 6-year-old and a 1-year-old and we live in a tri-lingual home. I speak Afrikaans to my daughters, my husband speaks Icelandic and together we speak a lot of English, interspersed with Afrikaans and Icelandic. We live in Iceland, so the dominant language is Icelandic.

When Ariadne was 24 months, I was consumed with worry about her language development. Her vocabulary was extremely limited and she often didn't respond, leading some people to think that she might be autistic or deaf (which she isn't – had her tested). Since Iceland is still a very mono-lingual environment, everyone said that the delay in speech development must be as a result of her learning 3 languages at the same time. Moreover her father (who also speaks Afrikaans) and I had separated when she was 18 months, so that might also have had an effect. I was also working extremely long hours and felt lost at sea with her language development and didn't know what to do.

Around the time she turned three, I read a short article (on Multilingual Living, or was it called Bilingual Living then? Can't remember!) on how one can tell the difference between a language disorder and a delay due to multiple languages. I realized that Ariadne is probably suffering a language disorder and asked for help from speech therapists. According to the speech therapists who tested her, she was suffereng severe language delay, and needed therapy. However, we live in the countryside, so the special ed teacher at the kindergarten set about working with her regularly, under the guidance of the speech therapist.

When she turned 4 we went to live in the capital city for a year, so she got to meet a speech therapist weekly. Her speech therapist and special ed teacher agree that she most likely suffers from Central Auditory Processing Disorder, although this  can't be diagnosed until after they've started school.  CAPD basically involves an inability to process what you hear, and you might have trouble differentiating between all the different sounds that make up a word or sentences. Therefore Ariadne had trouble repeating what she heard when she was little, and when she finally started speaking, only used nouns and verbs (only around 4 and a half did she start using all the little words, such as and, but, in, on etc.). Even now she has difficulty repeating things in sequence, e.g. the words to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star that I sing to her twice every night at bedtime. 

Now for the good news.  Ariadne turned 6 two weeks ago. From speaking hardly a word at 3, she can hardly stop speaking now! When her special ed teacher recently tested her, the results came out normal. Additionally, one must remember that since she understands all three languages perfectly well, she's got triple the (basic) vocabulary the other kids have. She mixes her three languages, yes, and one couldn't say her language development is at the same level of the more advanced monolingual kids in her group, but SHE SPEAKS, often non-stop! She tells jokes, questions virtual strangers on the street, argues with her friends and shows a whole lot of verbal attitude to her parents!

I've also been paying attention to many of the monolingual kids her age. Some have such bad pronunciation that one can hardly figure out what they're saying. Strangely enough, you don't see their parents fretting much about this. Could it be that they are not fretting because they only speak the dominant language, and therefore have the unspoken approval of their society? Whereas we multilingual parents are constantly wracked by guilt, since, unconsciously, we are still seeking the language approval of the society we live in. We therefore feel we need to justify our speaking our mother tongues by showing that our children are not suffering any problems whatsoever, regardless of what their actual realities are.  Just a thought. 

My advice to those of you worrying about your child's development:

1. Stop fretting! Have joy, joy in your language, joy in your child. Don't force anything, especially not to please others. That's a real mood-killer for language.

2. NEVER let your child feel he has to speak to please you (or to make you feel better/stop fretting).

3. If you're child is 36 months old and hardly speaking, search for some information on language disorders (there's plenty on this site) and get a speech therapist or speech pathologist to work with you. BUT, be wary of early diagnoses of all kinds, labelling a child unnecessarily.

4. Take into account ALL the other factors in a child's life at the time. Has he/she just started kindergarten in the dominant language? It takes a WHOLE lot of time getting used to that environment. Has there been any change in the family situation: a new sibling, death, divorce, a recent move? All these things can affect a child's security in terms of expressing him/herself.

5. Does your child watch a lot of TV? Mine could watch for hours at 18 months (I admit that allowing that was a HUGE mistake). TV speaks to you, but you don't have to speak back. Additionally, it's visual, so comforting to a child who has difficulty with communicating verbally.

6. Read studies of bilingualism. I'd definitely recommend Prof. Francois Grosjean's book Bilingual, Life and Reality, which reminds one how absolutely normal it is to speak many languages.

7. Get help. Join a play-group, singing sessions, anywhere where your child can have language interaction, whatever the language. It might even be a good idea to see if there's a special ed teacher in the area that will take your child for some private lessons (once they're three and up) in order to encourage language development through games and such.

Most of all, stop feeling guilty and stop feeling you have to justify your use of your mother tongue. Just spend time with your child, enjoy their idiosyncratic little expressions, and give them the benefit of the doubt. If they don't have a language disorder, their language(s) will come sooner or later!  If they do have a language disorder, it will take a bit more effort, but their language(s) will come sooner or later as well!

Johanna

PS My younger daughter is much faster at picking up language and communicating. Different folks, different strokes! And it helps A LOT having an older sister speaking to you!

Hello Dilcia

See in my opinion you should consult to speech therapist he will clearly tell you that it is due to speech disorder or due to learning two languages. Speech problem usually found in the children of small ages so it will be the best idea if you consult to any speech therapist and if it is some kind of speech problem then therapist will cure it soon because disorder is in its early stages or problem is just begin.

________________

Speech Therapy 

As a caveat to my earlier post – I found the milestones document which appears to be used as class supplementary material, compiled by Stephen Brock, at California state university.

As I suspected, the error bars on "normal" are immense – for example, the milestone of:

Puts two words together  has a "normal" value of  24 months  and a "range" of  20 to 30 months.

To put that in context. that's an error of 85%-125%. Or another way, a range of 10 months for a 24 month child is almost half it's life, and that's even before it gets out of the "normal" range. Half it's life, you can imagine, is a HUGE error. Imagine if, for example, bone development occurred with that kind of dispersion!.

There are a LOT of websites that seem to be propagating the rubbish that: "if your child isn't putting two words together by the age of 24 months, see your doctor" – the reason this is rubbish is "not putting two words together" is actually one of MANY symptoms of autism. IF the child is exhibiting other signs of autism, then there's cause for concern, but it's probably more than silly to be worried about a child who won't say two words but still does all the other "normal" things.

There seems to be an extreme potential for a total loss of context, particularly in this case. I suggest: keep it real, and tell your child's grandparents to do the homework.

Oh, and because many of the links to Brocks' document seem to be incorrect, here's the current one.

milestones.pdf