Bilingualism and Language Disability

Society is becoming increasingly multi-lingual and this presents monolingual professionals, particularly those in special education and speech pathology, with severe problems. This book provides a general overview of the subject with contributions from academics in the field. It is not concerned with second language learning, but with speech and learning difficulties in bilingual children as they are presented to remedial teachers, psychologists and speech therapists. To this end the first group of specially written articles deals with the patterns of language usage in bilingual communities and the social and psychological factors which shape these patterns; with processes in normal bilingual language acquisition; and with the relationship between cognitive development and growing up with two languages. Management issues and methods involved in helping children with language problems are also tackled. This book should interest readers on the issues involved and assist in crystalizing thought and directing future research.