Using an interdisciplinary perspective to discuss the intersection of language development and learning processes, this book summarizes current knowledge and represents the most critical issues regarding early childhood research, policy, and practice related to young bilingual children with disabilities. The book begins with a conceptual framework focusing on the intersection between the fields of early childhood education, bilingual education, and special education. It goes on to review and discuss the role of bilingualism in young children’s development and the experiences of young bilingual children with disabilities in early care and education settings, including issues of eligibility and access to care, instruction, and assessment. The book explores family experiences, teacher preparation, accountability, and policy, ending with recommendations for future research which will inform both policies and practices for the education of young bilingual children with disabilities. This timely volume provides valuable guidance for teachers, administrators, policymakers, and researchers.

Presents 12 essays by distinguished educators for appropriate intervention and for district policy making. Assists in decision making in assigning support for bilingual and/or learning disabilities.

Both SLPs and researchers must understand speech and language developments in children - and SLPs also need reliable assessment and intervention approaches for serving bilingual children with language disorders. This comprehensive text is one of the few to offer readers in-depth theoretical and practical information on these timely topics. brings together more than a dozen top researchers to present developmental data, best assessment practices, and appropriate intervention approaches in the following areas: language processing skills; lexical development; morpho-syntactic development; first language loss; grammatical impairments; semantic development; phonological development and disorders; narrative development and disorders; fluency; language intervention for bilingual speakers. The chapter outlines the major purposes of intervention for bilingual children with speech and language disorders, explores the debate over which language SLPs should use with bilingual children, and examines ways to promote gains in both languages. With this research-based text, SLPs will understand the complexity of language development in bilingual children and learn appropriate assessment and intervention approaches.

This text is a comprehensive Introduction for all professionals working with bilingual children. For speech therapists, doctors, psychologists, counsellors, teachers, special needs personnel, the book addresses important issues at a practical level.

Society is becoming increasingly multi-lingual and this presents monolingual professionals, particularly those in special education and speech pathology, with severe problems. Is the language delay in a child from a bilingual environment a result of this background or is there a specific speech problem? Is a child’s poor performance in school due to his problems of coping with two languages, or does he need remedial teaching? Originally published in 1984, this book is not concerned with second language learning, but with speech and learning difficulties in bilingual children as they are presented to remedial teachers, psychologists and speech therapists. To this end the first group of specially written articles deals with the patterns of language usage in bilingual communities and the social and psychological factors which shape these patterns; with processes in normal bilingual language acquisition; and with the relationship between cognitive development and growing up with two languages. Management issues and methods involved in helping children with language problems are also tackled: they include taking case histories, family liaison, counselling, bilingual programmes, mother tongue teaching, curriculum development and the training of personnel to work in the bilingual-bicultural field. This book provided a great deal of practical help, in a field that was relatively new at the time of writing, and helped to enlighten readers on the issues involved and assist in crystalising thought and directing future research.