Many parents and school staff are keen to understand what are the essential goals when assessing a child’s language and communication skills. These are four: to screen for language difficulty to establish a baseline for intervention to formulate appropriate goals for intervention to measure a child’s language skills over time. Westby, Stevens, Dominguez, and Oetter (1996) Screening In some part of the UK clinicians screen children to separate the kids
Ad a speech and language therapist I’m often asked about drooling or I see children that although they should control their saliva, they have wet chins or tshirts. …almost forgetting to swallow. Babies need to learn how to swallow food and saliva. Most achieve this within the first year or two of life. Some take a little longer. There is
The Different Types of bilingualism There are two ways children become bilingual: Simultaneous and Successive. Simultaneous language acquisition is when a child is exposed to 2 languages from birth in natural situations. This often happens when both parents speak two languages to a child or each parent speaks a different language to the child (or caregivers). These children tend to
If they learn more than two languages while growing up? NO. Children have an amazing ability to pick up several languages while growing up – providing they get enough exposure to them and have the chance and need to interact in them. Millions of children worldwide grow up in truly multilingual environments, learning them as they grow up, and they
Many parents ask me why their child is a late talker. Speech-language delays are common because oral communication is a complex process. There are many neurological processes that must occur to say just one word! A child has to get his parent’s attention, know the word, find the right word in her brain, send the word from his brain to his mouth and coordinate
Define your goals for your children’s language skills What is your expectation about how well your bilingual kids should be able to speak the language? There is a big difference in whether you would want them to be able to communicate in everyday situations or whether your goal is for them to be able to read and write and also
