What do teachers need to know about young English learners with disabilities?
Page 1: Young English Learners with Disabilities
As you learned in this module’s Challenge, many of the children in Mrs. Raymond’s classroom are from homes where languages other than English are spoken. These children are known as English learners (EL), students whose first language is not English but who are learning English. Young English learners are sometimes referred to as dual language learners (DLL) because they are learning two or more languages, either simultaneously or sequentially. The differences between simultaneous and sequential language learners include:
- Simultaneous language learners are those who learn two or more languages at the same time from birth or who start learning a second language prior to age three. Additionally:
- These learners often master both languages, each of which is considered to be their “first language.”
- Though both languages will develop at the same pace, the pace for learning two or more languages might be slower than that of a child who is learning only one language.
- Sequential language learners are those who begin to learn an additional language after they have turned three years of age. In addition:
- By the age of 36 months, these learners have often reached at least basic mastery in their first language. Basic mastery usually indicates that they have learned roughly 3,000 words and the use of simple phrases (similar to Stage 3 in the table below).
- Many preschool children who communicate effectively in their home language go through the stages of second language acquisition, more information about which can be found in the table below.
second language acquisition
The process whereby non-native speakers learn a new language; second language acquisition can be loosely divided into stages, and the speed of the process is determined by the type and purpose of the language being acquired.
| Second Language Acquisition Stages | |
|---|---|
| Stage 1: Pre-production |
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| Stage 2: Early production |
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| Stage 3: Speech emergence |
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| Stage 4: Intermediate fluency |
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| Stage 5: Advanced fluency |
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For Your Information
Educators may be familiar with other terms that refer to older children who use or who are learning multiple languages. These include:
- Multilingual learners
- Bilingual children
- English language learner (ELL)
- Children who speak a language other than English (LOTE)
- Emergent bilingual
Another term, Limited English Proficient (LEP), is now generally considered to be outdated.
Listen as Robert Stechuk, an expert in the area of young English learners, discusses some key differences between ELs and children learning only one language (time: 2:47).
Robert Stechuk, PhD
Transcript: Robert Stechuk, PhD
Comparing Simultaneous and Sequential Learners
Within the complexity of dual language development, there’s been a basic distinction made between simultaneous acquisition and sequential acquisition. Simultaneous acquisition is meant to identify those children who grow up with two languages or more than two languages from birth or relatively early within the infant-toddler period. Sequential acquisition means that the second language is introduced somewhere on or after the child’s third birthday. The home language of the family is the language that the child learns for the first several years of life, and then the child is exposed to English when they go to preschool or kindergarten. To my knowledge, there’s no empirical basis for saying that three is the cutoff point for identifying sequential learners. The commonsense sort of thinking behind the terminology is that by the age of three typically developing children have mastered the basics of pronunciation and grammar and have proceeded to acquire vocabulary and are moving in the direction of speaking in sentences. Acquiring a second language on or after that point puts the child in a different place than from acquiring two languages during infancy.
There’s some very key differences between children growing up with one language and children growing up with more than one language. Children who grow up with one language, there’s a lot of complexity. There’s phonological development, there’s morphemes, there’s grammar, there’s vocabulary, there’s pragmatics, there’s typical, there’s atypical. Dual language development offers even more complexity because there are variables that are unique to dual language learners that don’t really exist for children who are monolingual. For example, a child who’s four years old may acquire some information, some knowledge, some skills in one of their languages but not in the other. If the child is spending time with grandmother on the weekends and baking bread, they may have well developed mathematic skills. They may understand the concept of a half or a third and be able to express that in one of their languages but not be able to express those ideas in English.
Young English Learners with Disabilities
13 disability categories
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) lists 13 different disability categories under which three- through 21-year-olds are eligible for services. These categories are:
- autism
- deaf-blindness
- deafness
- emotional disturbance
- hearing impairment
- intellectual disability
- multiple disabilities
- orthopedic impairment
- other health impairment
- specific learning disability
- speech or language impairment
- traumatic brain injury
- visual impairment (including blindness)
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Any population of children will include a percentage who have disabilities. Children with disabilities are entitled by law to receive an individualized education, one tailored to address their unique needs. Though they can qualify to receive services under one of 13 disability categories covered in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA), it is sometimes difficult to identify their specific disabilities, particularly in the case of young children. In such instances, federal law allows states to serve these children under a fourteenth category, developmental delay. Regardless of the disability category, educators need to address the language learning needs of ELs as well as the individual needs associated with a given disability.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Name given in 1990 to the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) and used for all reauthorizations of the law that guarantees students with disabilities the right to a free appropriate education in the least-restrictive environment.
developmental delay
Term used to encompass a variety of disabilities in infants and young children, indicating that they are significantly behind the norm for development in one or more areas, including motor development, socialization, independent functioning, cognitive development, or communication.
Research Shows
A review of the current research indicates that:
- ELs with disabilities (e.g., speech-language impairment, intellectual disabilities, Down syndrome) tend to lag behind their typically developing EL peers in both academic and language outcomes.
- ELs with disabilities tend to perform as well if not better on various measures of language and cognitive development than do their peers with disabilities who speak a single language.
- Children with disabilities can successfully learn a new or second language.
(Cheatham, Santos, and Kerkutluoglu, 2012)
