Can children with Down syndrome learn more than one language? Does learning a second language affect progress in a first language?

 

These are questions that professionals are often asked but there is very little research evidence available on which to base advice. They are questions that are not easy to answer by designing a research study as, in many countries, so few children with Down syndrome are expected to learn more than one language. Parents could be very helpful in enabling us to answer these questions by recording the progress of their children with Down syndrome when they are in a bilingual situation and I hope that this article may encourage parents to write to me with information on their own children's progress with a second language. I am aware of many children and adults with Down syndrome who have achieved a functional level of competence in speaking a second and sometimes a third language, through contacts with families and professionals in many countries. I have also met children with Down syndrome who can read and write in more than one language but we need much more information their levels of general ability and on how they have achieved this in order to advise other parents. Case studies would be a good starting point for more research.

Learning a second language in school

In many countries, all children are expected to learn two or even three languages and they may begin to learn more than one language before starting full-time education or they may not be exposed to a second language until they are in school. For many of these children, only one language will be spoken at home and the other language may be used by some people in the community or only in school. Teachers and parents want to know if the child with Down syndrome should be included in second language learning. For example, should English speaking children with Down syndrome be included in Irish or Welsh lessons in primary school? Should children with Down syndrome learn a second language in secondary school when their peers begin lessons in the new language? As far as I am aware, there are no published studies of children's progress in these situations but I have met children with Down syndrome who have done well when learning a second language in both primary and secondary school. For example, I know children doing well in Irish language and Welsh language primary schools even though their first and home language is English. One lad in an English secondary school learned French in his first year as well as his non-disabled peer group – by going home and writing out everything he had to learn, as he knew that he had to see the French words to remember them. His mother commented that he was learning a second language in the same way as she had taught him his first language – by reading it. (For more on the benefits of early reading on speech and language development see 5,7).

Is bilingualism affecting their first language?

They are comparing the progress of 8 children with Down syndrome who are bilingual with a group of 15 who are monolingual, matched for mental age. All but one of these bilingual children are exposed continuously to both languages at home as well as in the community. The chronological ages of the bilingual children range from 4 years to 11 years. The two groups of children with Down syndrome do not differ in their English vocabulary sizes (English being the first or dominant language for all the children) or in their developing grammar as measured by Mean Length of Utterance (MLU). Learning two languages has had no negative effects on first language learning – no effects on vocabulary or on grammar in their spoken language.

http://www.down-syndrome.org/practice/180/