A practical solution to challenges faced by bilingual children

Children learning two or more languages are both over and under diagnosed for language impairment. A new assessment tool developed by scientists at universities across the UK in Prof. Mills at Bangor University, can now help health professionals identify bilingual toddlers at risk for language delay. By investigating vocabulary in English and 13 other languages, scientists also discovered that the similarity between the two languages influences vocabulary development.

Led by the University of Plymouth this multi-centre research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) with funding awarded to the universities of Bangor, Birmingham, Kent, Liverpool, and Oxford. Academics at Coventry, East Anglia and Essex were also involved.  

The final research is published in Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15405834/83/1    

Log on to the assessment tool here: http://www.psy.plymouth.ac.uk/UKBTAT/

Publication date: 26 April 2018