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February 6, 2000
 From
the Hart
by
Dr Hortencia Kayser
I
NTERVIEWING BILINGUAL PARENTS
I often hear clinicians and teachers talk about bilingual parents when in
actuality they mean the monolingual Spanish speaking parent and not parents
who speak 2 languages in the home. The majority of first generation
Mexican families are Spanish speaking only in the home. But there are many
1st and 2nd generation homes where English and Spanish are both actively
used for communication. This can occur when a Spanish monolingual marries
a monolingual English or bilingual English-Spanish speaking individual or
when both parents use the two languages. Children born into these families
are considered to be simultaneous bilinguals, that is, these children are
exposed to both languages before the age of 3 years. Children from this
type of background are in Head Start programs and private preschools and
sometimes their language abilities may appear to be delayed to the teacher
and speech language pathologist. What do you need to know about this type
of bilingual child?
What I would like to discuss in this month's issue are those questions that
you might ask parents during the case history interview that will help you
determine if the child is developing normally in speech and language. I'll
first give a brief review of what we know about the simultaneous bilingual
child, review those red flags in the case history, and then suggest some
questions that might help in the diagnostic evaluation. Finally, I'll give
some resources.
Volterra & Taeschner (1978) made some conclusions about simultaneous
bilingual children in their study of bilingual children. First, these
children do not have any difficulties in comprehension and may have only
one lexical system in the initial development of their vocabulary. I've
also observed that late talkers who have typical comprehension may appear
to have expressive delays when compared to monolingual children, but the
comprehension of language is within normal limits. The parents of these
late talkers report that the child understands everything that is said to
them. These children eventually do begin to speak at a level of
expectation. In addition, the child's vocabulary may be a combination of
the two languages and also they may not have equivalents in each of the
language at this stage.
The second conclusion is that there does not appear to be any difference
between these young children and monolinguals when comparing milestones in
language development. First words, numbers of words, and word combinations
appear at the same time. First words will appear at about 12 months of
age; the number of words will be a combination or sum of English and
Spanish. The word combinations may also be a combination of the two
languages. Therefore, the child may use semantic relationships that
combine both languages. Fantini (1978) described his son Mario as finally
separating the two languages at about 3 years of age.
The third conclusion that Volterra & Taeschner (1978) made is that these
children's linguistic context and interactions are important in the
acquisition of the two languages. For example, who is using the language
and how much exposure is the child receiving for each language? Fantini
(1978) described how Mario at 18 months of age had a preference for Spanish
over English. Mario would endear himself to Spanish speakers and ignore
English speakers. Children at a young age may attach to a language and
prefer one over the other. So it is possible that the parents may have
equal use and preferences for the languages, but the child may chose one as
the language of intimacy and family.
Volterra & Taeschner (1978) described three stages in the simultaneous
development of bilingual children. In stage 1, the children had only one
lexical system, which included words from both languages. Both languages
were used indiscriminately, as one would use one language. In stage 2, the
children differentiated the two lexical systems, but used only one grammar.
The grammar may be Spanish or English, or it could be combining semantic
relationships. Ideas are expressed in this early grammar by using the
words that relate the meanings that the child is attempting to communicate.
In stage 3 there is a complete separation of the lexical and grammar
systems. The children used each language without mixing. This stage may
occur between 3 and 3.6 years of age. This is an important observation
because so many children enter preschool programs and they're still mixing
the two languages. The recommendation by teachers and speech language
pathologists to the parents is to stop speaking one of the languages
because the child is confused. This is a poor recommendation because the
professional is looking only at expressive language and not looking at
other variables that would help define the child's true speech and language
development. Two tools that may help in your analysis for comprehension
are the Spanish versions of the Mac Arthur (See references). These parent
questionnaires have been normed on over 2000 Mexican and Mexican American
children, but the norms have not yet been published.
Fantini (1978) made some sociolinguistic observations concerning Mario's
language development. The first is that Mario by 2.8 years, classified
speakers by appearance. He learned that Hispanics had a certain appearance
and by age 3.0-3.4, places such as Mexico or South Texas were areas where
Spanish was primarily spoken.
The Case History is another primary source for looking at physical and
speech/language development. Prenatal conditions, complications at
delivery, and health are important variables to consider. For example, a
mother who has immigrated into the United States may not have had good
prenatal care. The conditions for fetal growth may have been poor. If the
child was born in another country, the first year of development is
dependent upon the mother's ability to feed herself and the child. We know
that a child who eats poorly but has 3 meals a day, does not develop brain
cells like the child who has adequate nourishment. There are conditions on
the Border of Mexico and the United States where American industries have
polluted the water sources and affected the air to the extent that children
are born with birth defects that are up to 10 times more than what is
expected for that area. It is very likely that many other children are
affected in utero to some extent. Children from the interior of Mexico do
not have these same types of environmental conditions affecting them, but
may have economic and health issues that may affect child growth and
development.
Other questions may pertain to feeding and swallowing. Such as did your
child have difficulty with sucking at birth, drooling when taking a bottle,
chewing foods, choking on liquids or pieces of food when swallowing? Have
you seen your child lick their lips to remove food from their face?
Hearing of course is an important area to investigate. Many families may
home remedy their own children when it comes to earaches. It is always
important to probe this area carefully with questions concerning draining
of the ear, fevers, earaches, whether the child pulled at his/her ears.
Childhood diseases and accidents are also important to question. Accidents
may occur and the parent may not have followed up with a medical visit.
For example, once when I was working in Tucson, a family in a station wagon
drove by my car and a child fell out of the car from the back seat. The
car was traveling about 30 miles an hour and moved a good distance before
stopping, backing up, and then picking up the child. The child was put
back into the rear seat. We now know that mild traumatic brain injuries
have a lasting effect on learning and social behaviors. All parents need
to understand that any head injury is something to be concerned about.
Below are questions that you can use with parents concerning the
simultaneous development of English and Spanish or any other language. I'm
sure that there are other questions that can be asked and the experienced
clinician will definitely add to this short list.
I've listed a web site for the University of Colorado's research on birth
to 3 years in Spanish speaking children. The data have been reported at
ASHA conventions in the last 3 years and papers from their work will be
published in the near future. Their work concerning Spanish language
development will be important contribution to our field.
QUESTIONS
How would you describe your child's comprehension of English and Spanish?
Does your child have different words in English and Spanish that are not
equivalents? Examples
When your child uses 2 word combinations, does s/he use one language or
both? Examples
Who is using which language and how much exposure is the child receiving
for each language?
Have you observed whether this child has a preference for one of the
languages?
Does your child differentiate languages by persons or place? E.g., Certain
people speak one language only.
Did your child have difficulty with sucking at birth, drooling when taking
a bottle, chewing foods, choking on liquids or pieces of food when
swallowing?
What were the living, health, and economic conditions during pregnancy and
the first year after birth? (Really be sensitive here.)
Have you seen your child lick their lips to remove food from their face?
Have there been any major illnesses, earaches, or accidents? (Probe)
RESOURCES AND REFERENCES
Arnberg, L. (1987). Raising children bilingually: The pre-school years.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Baker, C. (1995). A parents' and teachers' guide to bilingualism.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Fantini, A. E. (1978). Languae acquisition of a bilingual child: A
sociolinguistic perspective. Putney, VT: Experiment Press.
Harding, E. & Riley, P. (1994). The bilingual family: A handbook for
parents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kayser, H. (1998). Assessment and intervention resource for Hispanic
children. San Diego: Singular Publishing Group, Inc.
Mac ArthurInventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas: Primeras
palabras y gestos. Jackson,-Maldonado, Bates, & Thal (1992). University of
California at San Diego.
Mac ArthurInventario del Dessarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas: Palabras
y Enunciados.
Jackson,-Maldonado, Bates, & Thal (1992). University of California at San
Diego.
Volterra, V., & Taeschner, T. (1978). The acquisition and development of
language by a bilingual child. Journal of Child Language, 5, 311-326.
WWW.Colorado.edu/slhs/mdnc.
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