A Case Study of a Bilingual Child with SLI : The Role of Speech-Language Pathologist in Assessment and Treatment of Bilingual Children

This case study investigated the assessment and treatment of bilingual children using a 4.5 year old bilingual child. We also compared treatment methods for bilingual children in the U.S. and in Korea, respectively. Given the lack of unbiased assessment tools, it was difficult to evaluate the child properly. In addition, the study of the linguistic characteristics of bilingual children have not been researched extensively in Korea. As a result, there were limitations in assessing the child. However, once all requisite information had been gathered, he was assessed as a bilingual child with specific language impairment (SLI) and his skill in both languages was considered equivalent. During treatment sessions, the child exhibited diverse linguistic characteristics and interesting error patterns which were not evident in monolingual SLI. However, it was difficult to assess whether the error patterns exhibited by the subject were attributable to his own bilingual characteristics or not. This was further complicated by the lack of previous research on the bilingual child's linguistic characteristics. His progress differed from one area to another. Furthermore, we illustrated some of the limitations in assessing bilingual children and proposed several considerations that should be met before treatment is initiated.