Background
The main part of the LIVELY project compared two language intervention approaches for monolingual English-speaking children: Building Early Sentences Therapy (BEST) and an adapted version of the Derbyshire Language Scheme (DLS). The second part of the LIVELY project focussed on working with bilingual children. The aim was for an experienced Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) to deliver BEST intervention in home language working alongside interpreters. We wanted to find children who were below age expectations in both English and their home language of Mirpuri (a Pakistani heritage language), Sylheti (a Bangladeshi heritage language) or Polish. In terms of recruitment and eligibility, two children were included in the study – one Sylheti-speaking child who attended nursery, and one Polish-speaking child who was in reception class.
Research shows that delivering intervention in a child’s home language is best, however, in practice it can be difficult to do. The following discussion includes the preparation of home language resources, what we learned from working with bilingual children and interpreters, and recommendations for clinical practice.
Resources
For this project existing resources were adapted into Mirpuri, Sylheti and Polish by native speakers who had some linguistic knowledge. It was important to include morpheme-by-morpheme translations in all resources, particularly as some languages are more morphologically complex than English (see example in the table below).
| Polish | Dzieck-o szczotkuje misi-a |
| Morpheme-by-morpheme translation | Baby(+nomitive case) brush teddy(+accusative case) |
| English translation | (The) baby (is) brushing (the) teddy |
Some words and concepts were not directly translatable across languages. For example, in the original resources, the verb ‘to wave’ was used. However, this is a westernised gesture and there is no direct equivalent in Sylheti. Therefore, it was not included in the Sylheti adaptation.
Once the adaptations were completed, it was essential to pilot the resources on typically developing bilingual children working with interpreters to ensure they worked in real-life contexts. The interpreters recommended some changes for alternative vocabulary and/or syntactic structures. For example, the Polish resources included ‘samochód’ for ‘car’ but the Polish interpreter suggested that this was an old-fashioned version and ‘auto’ would be a more acceptable form.
Working with bilingual children
During the therapy sessions both the Sylheti and Polish-speaking children rarely, if at all, spoke Sylheti or Polish. This may have been due to the language situation; they were both in an English-speaking environment (education setting), where their home languages were not routinely spoken. They may also have been aware that the SLT was an English speaker, although the SLT tried not to speak English during the therapy sessions. The SLT learned some home language words and phrases to use as greetings and during warm-up/reward activities to encourage the children to use their home language.
There may also be cultural differences why the children did not use their home language in the sessions. In certain cultures children need to be told when to speak. As an SLT being directive and saying, for example, “tell me” or “you say it” seems counterintuitive as typically the advice given to support adult-child interaction is to follow the child’s lead, and comment rather than question or make the child talk.
Working with interpreters
For the duration of the bilingual project the SLT worked with the same Sylheti-speaking interpreter and the same Polish-speaking interpreter. This consistency enabled the SLT to build a good working relationship with the interpreters and gave the interpreters familiarity with the activities and resources. Additional time was needed before and after each therapy session to prepare, explain and give feedback to the interpreters. It was essential to practise and role-play activities with the interpreters, so they knew what was expected of them. Although every session of BEST followed the same structure and the sessions were scripted, the interpreters often added or changed the wording during the activities. It took time and practice for them to follow the script as directed.
Recommendations
- SLTs need to be better at helping correctly identify bilingual children who may have potential speech, language and/or communication needs.
- Working in home language is key to offering an equitable speech and language therapy service for bilingual children.
- If you need support and guidance when working with bilingual children, contact other SLTs who have this experience.
- Be brave! To develop these skills and best meet the needs of bilingual children, you just need to do it!
Please see the link below for the pre-recorded lightning talk for the North East Speech & Language Therapy Research Update Meeting that was held on 7 July 2022.
https://research.ncl.ac.uk/lively/newsevents/nesltjuly2022/
Authors: Elaine Ashton, Sajidah Ahmed, Ewa Czaplewska, Christine Jack, Carolyn Letts, Cristina McKean, Sean Pert, Zahida Warriach