When my little girl was 1 yr old, I realized that she only spoke a few simple words, like mama, baba, no, etc. Comparing to other Taiwan children her age, they can speak a lot of simple words or even phrases. I sort of panic and took her to the doctor, but the doctor said that she’s fine! When she’s about 1yr & 8mo old, I took her to another doctor, the doctor said she’ll be fine. She just needed time to absort & process the language differnces, when the time comes she’ll speaking properly.
My co-worker told me about Aphasia (Aphemia), which is now commonly treated on young children learning to speak especially in multilingual families. It would be best to speak only one language (or dialect) whenever around speaking learning children. So why didn’t both doctors tell me about Aphasia?
Many also told me that girls learn to speak faster than boys. My little girl is now 2yr & 7mo old, she speaks & sings but comparing with other children (or even boys a bit younger), she can’t communicate. I don’t enjoy comparing but I worry…
I also looked up Aphasia in Yahoo! “most people who have aphasia are in their middle to late years”. So it provided treatment info for that age group, none for children what so ever!
Both my husband & I agreed to speak mandarin at home, so that we will not confuse her. Is this enough? What else can be done?
I would fine a doctor who speciality is in this area… speech therapy or the like. Finding a condition on the internet and then trying to apply the symptoms to your kid is not good
Your co-worker is not an expert on your kid or your kids condition
The cause could be a number of things… let a specialist make that determination.
And finally whatever the doctor says get a second opinion
My middle daughter just finished speech therapy at an Early Intervention Center in Taipei. You can bring her in for an evalutaion and see what the doctors say.
Piwackit’s advice is the most important in this thread, but a few things that have been written merit further comment.
qtie, I suggest that you take what your co-worker said with a shaker of salt. Aphasia is a general term used to describe a few types of language loss, all of which are a result of things like trauma to the brain, aneurisms or infections in certain brain tissues-basically some sort of brain damage. Aphasia is not something caused by growing up in a bilingual environment. The testing and treatment of multilingual sufferers of aphasia is a bit more challenging than for monolinguals, but this does not mean aphasia is caused by being bilingual or multilingual.
Yes, on average, girls’ language development is faster than that of boys. Also, on average, bilingual children develop at a slighlty slower pace than the average monolingual child, but this seems to vary greatly depending on the quality and quantity of language input. If you feel that your daughter is noticeably slower in her language development than her peers, then definitely take her in for testing by a qualified speech therapist/pathologist. A paediatrician is usually not a good source of advice on language disorders; they don’t really get any training in it and most sensible paediatricians will refer you directly to a speech pathologist if they think there is anything wrong with your child’s language development.
Being exposed to quality input in more than one language does not lead to language disorders. Other than a stage of code-mixing that varies in length for different children, kids do not get confused by multilingual language input unless that input is itself confused. By that, I mean both parents are switching back and forth from one language to another, or one or both parents are speaking a language in which they are not at a level of native or very high proficiency. The latter can result not only in poor language development on the part of the child, but also slow cognitive development. Everyone’s situation is different, but I’d recommend that you and your husband each speak whatever language each of you is strongest in. It is very rare that a speech pathologist will recommend that a bilingual family go monolingual for the sake of a child with language development problems. I am not a speech pathologist, but it seems to me that they only recommend going monolingual when a child has very serious developmental problems that go beyond just language, or when a child suffers from aphasia (again, due to brain damage). I know two families that were advised to go monolingual, and to put it bluntly, the children this was intended to benefit were way more messed up than what you have said about your child. A speech therapist friend of mine here in HK says that parents should run, not walk, away from any speech therapist who advises families to go monolingual after only a couple of visits.
Many parents ignore any early development problems that their children have, and the result is that what were initially small problems become very big ones in later years. You are already ahead of the curve in that you have recognized what is likely to be just a bit of slowness in your child’s language development.
[quote=“TNT”]I would fine a doctor who speciality is in this area… speech therapy or the like. Finding a condition on the internet and then trying to apply the symptoms to your kid is not good
Your co-worker is not an expert on your kid or your kids condition
The cause could be a number of things… let a specialist make that determination.
And finally whatever the doctor says get a second opinion[/quote]
Hi TNT! You’re right about my co-worker! But sometimes I can’t help “over-react” and worst of all - panic!!!
I will definitely take your advise to consult a doctor. But I need to find one first… can’t seem to find a good doctor around where I live…
[quote=“piwackit”]My middle daughter just finished speech therapy at an Early Intervention Center in Taipei. You can bring her in for an evalutaion and see what the doctors say.
Neihu and Songshan 2756-6948[/quote]
Hi Piwackit! Thank you for your info.
If you don’t mind me asking… Does anyone speak understandable English there?
My husband told me about this and he thinks that I’m over-reacting again…
This is what I don’t like about the pedaitricians I’ve visited so far. They’re careless, not sensible and worst of all, unprofessional.
One of them almost misdiagnosed my little girl once (I’m still very upset about this whenever I talk about this :fume: ).
Gosh, I didn’t know this will affect her development…
Uh-oh!!! Well, my strongest is English, of course. My husband’s strongest is Cantonese but he hates speaking Cantonese and refuses to let my little girl learn Cantonese. So we both now speak Mandarin at home with wierd accents…
Gosh, this is just not good to start with!
Thank you so very much and this is very encouraging… My husband always think that I over-react, but somehow, I just can’t seem to agree with him this time. I will consult a doctor, but need to find a decent one first…
[quote=“qtie”][quote=“piwackit”]My middle daughter just finished speech therapy at an Early Intervention Center in Taipei. You can bring her in for an evalutaion and see what the doctors say.
Neihu and Songshan 2756-6948[/quote]
Hi Piwackit! Thank you for your info.
If you don’t mind me asking… Does anyone speak understandable English there?[/quote]
English? Why? Do you speak Mandarin with a weird accent, or do you not really speak it properly at all? What about your husband – does he actually speak Mandarin, or just a hacked together version of Cantonese on 4 tones.
Excuse me for being direct, but it is hardly surprising if your little one is not saying much just yet: you’ve probably confused the hell out of it!
Your child doesn’t have aphasia and is exhibiting a normal pattern of language acquisition given the mixed language input. For heaven’s sake get started on the English and Cantonese, speak as you would naturally speak and stop worrying about it.
I’ve just re-read the thread, and concluded that the OP is not a native speaker of English. If we’re not getting the full information, it’s difficult to know how to help :s
