Abstract
Although bilingualism is generally appraised and supported by society, many more doubts arise when it comes to children suffering from neurodevelopmental disorders. The concern that the exposure to two languages might deteriorate the linguistic development of children, together with the advice to simplify the linguistic environment and to adopt a monolingual approach, leads many families to abandon their home language and sacrifice bilingualism. Scientific research, however, has shown that this fear is ungrounded and that children with developmental disorders can become successful bilingual speakers, if they are provided with appropriate linguistic exposure. The aim of this paper is that of providing a state-of-the-art of the literature on this topic, by reviewing studies conducted on the interaction between bilingualism and neurodevelopmental disorders, focusing in particular on the interaction between bilingualism and developmental language disorder (DLD), developmental dyslexia and autism spectrum disorder. We discuss issues related to the early identification of DLD and dyslexia among bilinguals and we report the results of studies showing that bilingualism does not exacerbate the difficulties of children with developmental disorders, but on the contrary it can be beneficial for them, at the cognitive, linguistic and socio-cultural level. Finally, we provide some recommendations for parents, educators and practitioners, focusing on the importance of supporting the family language in all of its components, including literacy, for a complete and harmonic bilingual growth.
Highlights
Advantages of Bilingualism in Typical PopulationsAccepted: 11 December 2021Bilingualism nowadays tends to be appraised and considered as a valuable opportunity for the many advantages that it can bring with it at the socio-cultural, professional and even cognitive level
The first issue is related to the fact that the linguistic domains in which children with developmental language disorder (DLD) display major difficulties are typically weak in typically developing bilingual children too
One of the most frequently asked questions by families and educators of bilingual children diagnosed with DLD concerns the possible effects that the exposure to two languages can have on their linguistic development
Summary
Bilingualism nowadays tends to be appraised and considered as a valuable opportunity for the many advantages that it can bring with it at the socio-cultural, professional and even cognitive level. This is related to the difference between additive and subtractive bilingualism: if in a situation of additive bilingualism, the first language continues to develop without being threatened by the learning of the second language, in subtractive bilingualism the second language tends instead to replace the functions of the first one, whose development is hindered This is a delicate topic, especially for families of children with a migrant background who are not always aware of the importance of maintaining their home language, since the advantages typically associated to bilingualism are more detected in the case of additive bilingualism, where both languages are developed and appraised by society. We will discuss this issue with respect to bilingual children showing a developmental language disorder
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