Hello Walden family,

I’m writing about a child named Sadi who lives in the United States with his parents who migrated from Bangladesh, a country in Southeast Asia almost twenty years ago. His parents speaks Bengali and English both at home. They understand the importance of bilingualism. Recent brain-based research has provided information that the bilingual speakers have better memories than monolinguals (Mackey, 2014). However, unlike their older son, Sadi has become more of a passive speaker for his native language which is Bengali. He prefers to speak in English. I would appreciate your support in helping me to research more on passive speaker for native language and impact of bilingualism in language and literacy development journey of a child.

Introduction: Sadi is a boy, born in the United States. His parents have relocated to United States almost twenty years ago from Bangladesh, a country in Southeast Asia. He lives with both of his biological parents; his mother and father and two of his other biological brothers since birth. According to the birth order, he is the youngest child of the family. His parents provide the primary care for him. He is very close to his mother.

Toddler-hood: The Factors that Influenced His language Development 

Gender: Research have shown that boys’ receptive and expressive skills are fewer than girls. Also, boys express less words than they can comprehend (Fenson, Bates, Dale, Goodman, Reznick, & Thal, 2000).  Sadi, who showed less expressive language for native language (L1), but showed well development in (L2) receptive language development area for L2.

Birth Order: Research have shown that younger siblings receive more input besides their parents from their older siblings that affects their language development (Hoff, 2006). Sadi experienced the same circumstance with his older brother in terms of L2 development.

Socioeconomic Status: Sadi’s both parents are well educated and understand the importance of bilingualism and the environmental factors for his language and cognitive development. He had been going to the local library since his infancy, exposed to conversation between his brothers and parent in L1 and L2 constantly. As a result, he showed his depth of understanding of receptive language development from primary grade for his school-age years.  He had been also awarded for accelerated readers during his primary grades. Although many characteristics of inter-individual (gender, birth order, and SES) are beyond parents’ control, some of the environmental factors that parents can make choices about (Turnbull & Justice, 2011, p.224). Among them, continuous support for his cognitive development helped him to acquire language development. To explain, Morin stated that it comes from all kinds of exposures children have during this time with their senses. These all support the brain to discharge neurotransmitters to the circuits. As a result, they get tougher as more lanes are used. (Morin, 2014).

 

Reference:

Mackey, A. (2014, September). What happens in the brain when you learn a language? The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/04/what-happens-to-the-brain-language-learning

Pence Turnbull, K. L., & Justice, L. M. (2012). Language development from theory to practice (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Inc.

Fenson, L., Bates, E., Dale, P., Goodman, J., Reznick, J. S., & Thal, D. (2000). Measuring variability in early child language: Don’t shoot the messenger. Child Development, 71, 323-328.

Hoff, E. (2006). How social contexts support and shape language development. Development Review, 26, 55-88.

Morin, A. (2014). How Kids Develop Thinking and Learning Skills. Understood, for learning and attention issues. Retrieved from https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/signs-symptoms/developmental-milestones/how-kids-develop-thinking-and-learning-skills