Bilingualism and Speech Sound Disorders

Abstract

The nature of speech sound development and disorders in bilinguals is complex, in part, because of the interdependence between languages. That interdependence, however, appears to be advantageous to bilinguals in that it bootstraps the languages such that speech sound development is similar, although not identical, to that of monolinguals. The same principle also applies to bilinguals with speech sound disorders. From a longitudinal perspective, speech sound acquisition in typically developing bilinguals and those with speech sound disorders is not remarkably different than that of monolinguals. However, speech sound skills are neither identical across the languages nor equally distributed across the languages given each language’s phonotactic constraints. Thus, assessing speech sound skills in bilinguals is more complex than that for monolinguals. Typically, standardized assessments are not available for differential diagnosis, and informal measures are required. Intervention for bilinguals with speech sound disorders likely will need to occur in all languages.