English as a Second Language (ESL) clients

Working with children and families with English as a Second Language (ESL) presents an additional challenge for speech pathologists.

For languages that share some of the same phonemes as English, it is likely that the normal developmental sequence in those languages would be similar to English. As a starting point, consider the “early middle late eight” concept of sound development. If early sounds such as /p, b/ exist in the language, then they are likely to be early developing sounds in that language, as they are in English. By working with an interpreter, the speech pathologist may be able to gain a sense of the sounds of the language, and then choose assessment and treatment targets accordingly. For example, the speech pathologist might ask the interpreter to think of a CV word that begins with /b/ in the first language. The child can be asked to repeat the word, and the speech pathologist can compare the child’s production with that of the interpreter’s (presumably correct) production.

If the child is bilingual, then assessment would need to occur in both languages. A literature review by Abdul-Samad et al (2008) suggested that bilingual children have separate phonological systems for their different languages, with differences in phonemic repertoire and error patterns being common.

Further reading

• Abdul-Samad, T., Batterham, E., Caldwell, L., Fornaro, S., Mahkri, S., Su, J. & Steel, G. (2008). The Effects of Bilingualism on the Normal Development, Assessment and Treatment of Speech, Language and Fluency in Preschoolers: A Literature Review. LaTrobe Univsersity, Melbourne.
  
• McLeod, S & Bleile, N. (2003, November). Neurological and developmental foundations of speech acquisition. Paper presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention. Retrieved from 
  This presentation primarily discusses normal speech and language development in English, however, has a reference list at the end which includes articles about phonological acquisition in languages other than English.
• This powerpoint presentation discusses the acquisition of English phonemes in terms of the “early middle late eight” concept.