How SLPs Can Foster Bilingual Skills in Students on the Autism Spectrum

In a recent online chat, SLP and bilingual researcher Betty Yu shares strategies for encouraging students and families to communicate in their heritage language. Participant: Is there ever an age or circumstance where you feel it is too late to start exposing a child to their heritage language? Betty Yu: It’s never too late to start learning one’s heritage language. Just as it’s never too late to learn any additional language. A common occurrence in the U.S. is people start seriously learning (or re-learning) their heritage languages as adults, often in college, once they’re mature enough to understand the benefits. Every family makes decisions about their language use and what they’re going to pass on to their children in different ways, and for very personal reasons. I would recommend talking with them first to understand their thoughts on the topic. For example, find out why they might have decided not to speak the heritage language in the first place. It might be that they worried that it would harm their children or get in the way of learning English. And you could play a role in offering them the latest knowledge on that. Participant: Which therapy language would you recommend for a child with apraxia and who is also on the spectrum? Parents speak Arabic but speak to their children only in English. Yu: There are several things to consider for the language to use in intervention. First, what is the child’s current proficiencies and pre...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Academia & Research Health Care Private Practice Schools Slider Speech-Language Pathology Apraxia of Speech Autism Spectrum Disorder bilingual Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs