Assessment and Treatment of School-Age Dual Language Learners with Language Disorders, presented in partnership with Rush University

First, I will cover some terms that you may be familiar with, but they are ones that I am not actually going to focus on today.  We will get to the reason in a minute.  Some of you may be more familiar with the term “bilingual,” and I do use that in some of my own writing about these children.   You may also be familiar with these terms: the distinction between “simultaneous” and “sequential” bilinguals. Simultaneous bilinguals are children who typically learn two languages from birth; some people use an operational cutoff of learning two languages before age one or two. Sequential bilingual children are exposed to one language from birth and then learn another later in childhood.  Most of the children we will talk about today would follow into that sequential category.  You also may be familiar with the terms “dominant” and “balanced” bilinguals.  Balanced bilinguals are children or adults who speak both languages with equal proficiency; dominant bilinguals are better in one language or another. Finally, some of you may be familiar with the terms English Language Learner (ELL), or the older terms English as second language (ESL) or limited English proficient (LEP).  Those have been used most commonly in the schools to refer to children who are considered to not have full proficiency in English.