“As in immigrant in this country, improving my English was what I needed to do to raise bilingual children. Several times I have been recommended to only speak English at home, specially because my kids have Down’s syndrome and many professionals think that exposing them to two languages makes it harder, but it is my experience that the more exposed they are to different challenges and forms of education, the more they are able to learn.”
Read the full article: “Raising Bilingual Kids with Special Needs”
Reblogging so that I remember to read this article.
See, this doesn’t make any sense. I could understand if the doctors were talking about older teenagers, but that kid looks pretty young. As in, he looks not much older than when you first start picking up a language, which is pretty much the best time to be bilingual. If someone with Downs can pick up one language in childhood they can pick up two, right?
Unless they’re talking about later on in life … but that’s relatively common with early bilinguals, right Johann? Don’t you and your sister speak Swinglish all the time?
Read, it’s worth it. I think we need to stop getting hidebound in the protocols of treating/educating/socializing people with developmental disabilities/challenges. Like anything, education works better when you teach the student. The individual student. There are enough barriers to that for every child/teacher, that allowing ones that are unnecessary and reflect ableist policy, is a disaster.
My aunt has Down’s and was raised in a bilingual household so she speaks both English and Spanish. I’ve never even heard of the idea that a child with special needs shouldn’t be raised bilingually. I feel like language is acquired so naturally, even for children who do have special needs (provided the child doesn’t have some speech production issue, etc.).
(via phineasderomanus)
