The recent research article, "Disentangling Language Disorder and Bilingualism in Children with Developmental Language Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence from Writing," offers valuable insights into the writing challenges faced by bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study provides practical strategies that practitioners can implement to enhance the writing skills of these children.
Key Findings
The study found that bilingual children with DLD and ASD exhibit distinct patterns of writing impairment:
- Bilingual children with DLD: More prone to spelling errors, particularly grammatical and orthographic errors.
- Bilingual children with ASD: More challenged by stress and punctuation use, often misplacing stress diacritics and punctuation marks.
Practical Implementation Strategies
To help practitioners improve their skills and support bilingual children with DLD and ASD, consider the following strategies based on the research findings:
For Bilingual Children with DLD:
- Focus on Grammatical Awareness:
- Implement activities that reinforce the rules of inflectional morphology. Use visual aids and interactive exercises to help children understand and remember grammatical rules.
- Orthographic Knowledge:
- Develop exercises that enhance orthographic knowledge, such as spelling games that emphasize the correct spelling of word stems and suffixes.
- Early Language Exposure:
- Encourage parents to increase exposure to the dominant language at home from an early age to support grammatical development.
For Bilingual Children with ASD:
- Stress Assignment Practice:
- Use visual and auditory aids to teach correct stress assignment in words. Interactive software that provides immediate feedback can be particularly effective.
- Punctuation Use:
- Introduce punctuation exercises that focus on the correct use of commas, full stops, and question marks. Use storytelling and writing prompts to practice punctuation in context.
- Implicit Prosody Training:
- Engage children in activities that improve their understanding of prosody, such as reading aloud and using rhythm and intonation exercises.
Encouraging Further Research
While the study provides significant insights, it also highlights the need for further research in specific areas:
- Investigate the impact of bilingualism on other aspects of writing, such as narrative coherence and lexical choices.
- Explore the role of early bilingual exposure in mitigating writing challenges in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Conclusion
By implementing these research-based strategies, practitioners can better support bilingual children with DLD and ASD in developing their writing skills. Continuous professional development and staying updated with the latest research will further enhance the effectiveness of interventions.
To read the original research paper, please follow this link: Disentangling Language Disorder and Bilingualism in Children with Developmental Language Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence from Writing.
