How do bilingual children learn to build longer, more complex sentences, and does this differ if a child has developmental language disorder (DLD)? DLD means a child has lasting difficulty learning and using language. This study, published in Frontiers in Education, asked how sentence complexity grew in both of a child's languages.
The researchers followed 54 Spanish–English bilingual children: 39 typically developing and 15 with DLD. Each child retold a story in English and in Spanish in prekindergarten, 1st grade and 3rd grade. The article does not say which country the children lived in.
Both groups built longer sentences, and English looked similar
The team looked at how often children used subordinate clauses. These are add-on parts of a sentence, such as "because it was raining" or "the boy who lost his hat". They also checked for grammar errors.
Children in both groups used more complex sentences as they moved through the grades. In English, the typically developing children and the children with DLD grew in broadly similar ways. The study found no significant group differences in sentence complexity, overall use of subordinate clauses, or the types of clauses used.
The catch: in Spanish, children with DLD stalled after 1st grade
Spanish was the children's heritage language, meaning the language of their family background rather than the main language of school. Here the groups pulled apart.
Typically developing children made clear gains in overall subordinate clause use and in nominal clauses. A nominal clause works like a noun, as in "I think that he is hungry". Children with DLD showed limited growth in Spanish after 1st grade. They also used a narrower range of clause types, especially nominal clauses.
The authors concluded that Spanish was more vulnerable than English, particularly for children with DLD. Their clause-by-clause analysis also picked up differences that the overall complexity scores missed.
What the study can and cannot tell us
This was a small sample, especially the 15 children with DLD. It covered one language pair, Spanish and English, and the article does not name the country. It did not study Mandarin, Malay, Tamil or other languages common in Singapore homes, so we cannot say the same pattern would appear in Singapore children. The study also measured story retelling only, not everyday conversation or schoolwork.
If you are weighing up a bilingual child's language, look at both languages
The findings support two cautious steps for parents who are concerned about a bilingual child's language development:
- Do not judge by English alone. English looked similar across groups, while differences in Spanish only showed up in the home language.
- If you seek an assessment, tell the specialist which languages your child uses. The authors stress examining complex syntax in the heritage language.