Questions about language development

In article
outparenting.com,
"ozox" wrote:

My daughter is about 17 month old now and she hardly speaks anything except
that never stops saying emm and ahh. We are an immigrant family living in
Australia and we speak chinese at home. I am worried about the language
development of my daughter. Our doctor said that it may be because she
gets confused about the two languages and told us not worry much as long
as she understands us. She seems to have no problem understand our words
and just doesn't speak. When she was about 12 month she used to say mum
but now she stop saying anything. Has someone experience this before? Is
this normal? How much language capabilities the baby should have at this
stage of life?

Bilingual children learn language slightly differently to monolingual
children. One of the most obvious differences is that they start off more
slowly, presumably because they are learrning the rules for two languages, not
just one. They will catch up eventually and will have the advantage of
knowing two languages, not just one.

Ask your library for books on bringing up bilingual children.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"In Melbourne there is plenty of vigour and eagerness, but there is
nothing worth being eager or vigorous about."
Francis Adams, The Australians, 1893.

ozox wrote:
I am worried about the language
development of my daughter.

It's worth getting her an evaluation. It's true that being in a
bilingual environment can slow things down. But that makes evaluating
her development more complex and gives all the more reason that an
experienced specialist should be involved. Also the fact that she had
a word and lost it is concerning. There's little downside to doing an
eval (as another poster mentioned, good professionals make it fun for
the child) and the potential upside of catching a problem early and
being able to address it sooner.

Kate, ignorant foot soldier of the medical cartel
and the Bug, 22 months

Melania wrote:
Barbara wrote:
SNIP
The most important thing the SLP told us was: as a parent, if you
suspect a problem with your child's language development, get it
checked out immediately. If there's nothing wrong, great, but if
there
is a problem, the sooner it's caught the better able you will be to
deal with it, and the fewer ramifications there will be further down
the line.

As I told everyone who thought I was overreacting about ds's speech:
maybe I am, but I know I would kick myself if all of a sudden he was
3.5 or 4 and not speaking, and I then had a doctor or a SLP telling
me
"you should have brought him in two YEARS ago!!"

One's speech and language issues were not diagnosed until he was in
kindergarten. I expressed shock in the diagnosis to the therapist.
*When he was a toddler, I wondered if he had a speech and language
problem. I had him tested by Early Intervention, and they said that
he'd be fine. Each year, I asked his nursery teachers about his speech
development, and they thought I was just an overly worried mom.* The
therapist pointed out that, given the history, I KNEW that he had a
problem, but chose to listen to the back-patters who tell you
everything will be all right.

If you think there's a problem, look into it.

Barbara

Barbara wrote:

One's speech and language issues were not diagnosed until he was in
kindergarten. I expressed shock in the diagnosis to the therapist.
*When he was a toddler, I wondered if he had a speech and language
problem. I had him tested by Early Intervention, and they said that
he'd be fine. Each year, I asked his nursery teachers about his
speech development, and they thought I was just an overly worried
mom.* The therapist pointed out that, given the history, I KNEW that
he had a problem, but chose to listen to the back-patters who tell you
everything will be all right.

For anyone else reading (from the US)...if you take your child to a school
district funded and are in the above position...don't hesitate to get a
second opinion from an independent evaluator. The school district provides
services only if the scores are below a certain level. That doesn't mean
there isn't an issue, or that therapy wouldn't help....just means that the
school isn't going to provide it. Some schools might be very honest about
their true feelings, but a whole lot will say everything will be fine to
avoid the sticky situation that arises if they don't really think everything
is fine but they won't provide services because the kids scores don't
qualify.

I'm in a situation a bit like that now. My son (soon to be 6yo) received
speech therapy when he was 3yo and no longer tests eligible for services.
His scores in one particular language area are a full 30 points lower then
other tested areas but still above the cut off. No school district funded
services. They said I should 'expect' those scores to drop further and that
he'd have more pronounced difficulties by 2nd or 3rd grade. They'll happily
retest then to see if he qualifies for services. I'm a bit shocked they
even told me that...but I already knew it. Anyway - the kid could use some
services before he crashes and burns in 3rd grade - I just can't get them
from the school.


--
Nikki

On 15 Apr 2005 07:39:44 -0700, "Barbara"
wrote:
One's speech and language issues were not diagnosed until he was in
kindergarten. I expressed shock in the diagnosis to the therapist.
*When he was a toddler, I wondered if he had a speech and language
problem. I had him tested by Early Intervention, and they said that
he'd be fine. Each year, I asked his nursery teachers about his speech
development, and they thought I was just an overly worried mom.* The
therapist pointed out that, given the history, I KNEW that he had a
problem, but chose to listen to the back-patters who tell you
everything will be all right.

I wonder what else should you have done, if everyone said he would be
fine? Especially if Early Intervention thought he was ok.
Marie

In article ,
"Nikki" wrote:

The evaluations are fun for the kid and where I am at (the US) they are
free. Not sure about Australia. If the child does need some help, the
earlier the better.

Absolutely. Sorry, I should have added some information to my other post:

Take your child along to the Early Childhood Clinic for the 18-month checkup
and tell them that you are concerned -- you are due to attend the clinic then
anyway, and they will look at other aspects of child development too (see your
Blue Book for the list of questions to consider before you go). The nurse can
refer for hearing tests and speech pathology. Alternatively, go to your
doctor and your doctor can refer you. I think the hearing test will be free,
but I am not sure about speech pathology.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"In Melbourne there is plenty of vigour and eagerness, but there is
nothing worth being eager or vigorous about."
Francis Adams, The Australians, 1893.