Identification of multilingual children with communication disorders

Abstract

This paper will review the currently adopted terminology regarding multilingualism. Speech and language acquisition in children exposed to more than one language is discussed in relation to that of monolingual children. The challenges related to assessment and the identification of multilingual children with communication disorder will be the focus of the paper. Opportunities for multilingual children to acquire optimal communication skills as well as intervention strategies that are currently applied to enhance speech and language acquisition of multilingual children with communication impairment are discussed in the light of the recommendations of learned societies and current literature. Finally, a case study of a specific language pair will be presented whereby research findings related to the speech and language acquisition of young Maltese children is reported.