Laura Epstein

More than half of the world population is bilingual or multilingual. According to the U.S. Census (2010), approximately a quarter of the U.S. population over the age of five speaks a language other than English at home. Since 1980, the nation's overall population grew by 34 percent while the percentage of speakers of non-English languages grew by 140 percent. In contrast, fewer than 5 percent of speech-language pathologists in the U.S. speak a language other than English. Children from minority-language backgrounds are disproportionately represented in Special Education and lack access to equitable services to support their needs. What do speech-language pathologists need to understand in order to better support the needs of the bilingual children that they serve? This course will provide an overview of the cognitive, developmental, and cultural foundations of typical bilingual and biliterate acquisition in children. This course is one of three courses on bilingualism. In the next two courses, issues related to assessment and children with communication disabilities are discussed.

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Children from minority-language backgrounds are disproportionately represented in Special Education and lack access to equitable services to support their needs. A significant contributor to the problem is that speech-language pathologists and teachers often have difficulties distinguishing between what are typical behaviors in second language learning and what are indicators of language disorders. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an assessment framework for differentiating between language differences and language disorders. This course will provide a framework for assessing bilingual children and children who are English language learners. This course will also provide case examples of assessments in the family setting and in the school setting. This course is second of three courses on bilingualism. In the next course, bilingualism in children with communication disabilities are discussed.

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Can children with communication disabilities become bilingual? Will bilingualism exacerbate their difficulties or further delay their development? While there is ample data on the advantages of bilingualism for typically developing children, many professionals and parents are still fearful of speaking more than one language with children who have significant communication disorders they worry that bilingualism would be too taxing for children who are already struggling with language, or may further delay the acquisition of one or both languages. In this course, we will review the current research on bilingual children with communication disabilities, including children with specific language impairment and autism spectrum disorders. We will also answer frequently asked questions about bilingualism in children communication disabilities as well as offer perspectives from parents of children with communication disabilities from bilingual families. It is the aim of this course to dispel common myths about bilingualism in children with communication disorders and to promote family-centered and culturally and linguistically responsive services for children with communication disabilities from diverse linguistic backgrounds.

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