Speech development and disorder in bilingual children
Speech-language pathologists have no clear guidelines on how to assess, diagnose or treat bilingual children with speech disorders. This thesis addresses this issue. The phonological development of 91 Cantonese-English and Punjabi-English bilingual children is described. Two Cantonese-English bilingual children's phonological development over the year they were first exposed to English is also presented. The bilingual children's phonological systems were clearly differentiated. The bilingual children's speech also included many phonological processes that would be considered atypical for a monolingual child. The use of these processes is argued to be characteristic of normal bilingual development. The longitudinal data showed that the atypical error patterns were transient and directly related to the introduction of the second language. Some 'atypical' error patterns could be plausibly explained by referring to the nature of the two phonological systems. Other atypical processes could be explained by language-specific differences in normal developmental or adult variation patterns. This thesis argues that the differences evident in the bilingual children's phonological patterns are due to 'hypothesis testing'
Holm, Alison
Speech language therapy
Speech development and disorder in bilingual children. Speech-language pathologists have no clear guidelines on how to assess, diagnose or treat bilingual children with speech disorders. This thesis addresses this issue. The phonological development of 91 Cantonese-English and Punjabi-English bilingual children is described. Two Cantonese-English bilingual children's phonological development over the year they were first exposed to English is also presented. The bilingual children's phonological systems were clearly differentiated. The bilingual children's speech also included many phonological processes that would be considered atypical for a monolingual child. The use of these processes is argued to be characteristic of normal bilingual development. The longitudinal data showed that the atypical error patterns were transient and directly related to the introduction of the second language. Some 'atypical' error patterns could be plausibly explained by referring to the nature of the two phonological systems. Other atypical processes could be explained by language-specific differences in normal developmental or adult variation patterns. This thesis argues that the differences evident in the bilingual children's phonological patterns are due to 'hypothesis testing'
speech development disorder bilingual_child speech language clear guideline assess diagnose treat bilingual_child speech disorder address_issue phonological_development cantonese english english bilingual child describe cantonese english bilingual child_phonological development expose english also_present bilingual_child phonological_system clearly differentiate bilingual_child speech also_include many phonological_process would consider atypical monolingual_child use process argued characteristic normal bilingual development longitudinal data_show atypical error_pattern transient directly_relate introduction second_language atypical error_pattern could plausibly explain refer nature phonological_system atypical process could_explain language_specific difference normal developmental adult variation pattern argues difference evident bilingual_child phonological pattern due hypothesis_test