Plea For Information on Specific Language Disorder In Multilingual Households

I've receved a couple of emails from parents of children with SLI, who live in households where more than one language is spoken. I was particularly touched by this lady's words;

' I was searching for articles on SLI on the web and came upon your blog. What a wonderful gift you have given me. Your writings are beautiful and touching and makes me feel I am not alone.'

She has asked me if anyone has any information or literature, that will be useful and to be honest it isn't an area I have really covered, as a parent. We tend to skip the chapters that don't apply to our children don't we?

This is a topic that has come up recently on this thread from Mumsnet

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/1373/521783

Moondog, has particular experience in this area, she write:-

'If more than 1 language is natural for you at home,then continue to use it.I'm a salt and a product of a bilingual home, and work in a bilingual community',

and continues,

'I really really worry about denying a child access to one language. It will only exacerbate their isolation. It might be something to consider if maybe only one person in the child's entire circle speaks a language but i would argue that the emotional trauma of pulling a language from under their feet suddenly, far outweighs the benefits.I work in 'Welsh' Wales where most of the population is Welsh speaking. I can put my hand on my heart and say that i don't think one of the people I work with has problems in this respect.'

I'd be interested to hear the views of other parents and professionals, regarding this please. Like many of us, this lady is concerned for her child's future and ends the email,

'I wish I could talk to other parents whose kids were in similar situations so I can get a future picture of how life would be for my son. I know every child is different, but I would love to see some light at the end of the tunnel.'

I don't print any personal details from any emails I receive, nor any extracts without permission, but I have forwarded the Mumsnet link, to this lady.

I found this link from china sprout today,by a speech pathologist named Dr Nancy Eng. The only thing is the bottom half of the report seems to be missing: http://66.70.209.234/community/guestcolumns/2

This link looks useful for resources: http://www.multilingualfamily.co.uk/index.html