Language socialisation in bilingual families with children with communication disabilities

Martin, Deirdre and Stokes, Jane (2009) Language socialisation in bilingual families with children with communication disabilities. In: British Association of Applied Linguistics Conference, 3-5 Sep 2009, Newcastle, UK. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

There is an identifiable gap in research about language socialisation of young children growing up in bilingual environments and who are late talkers or non- communicators. A consequence is a limited knowledge base to inform health and education professional practice and provision to this group of children and their families. It is possible that early years professionals in the absence of knowledge draw on ‘common sense’ and ‘universal norms of language development’ associated with monolingual notions of language socialisation.
“Socialization, broadly defined, is the process through which a child or other novice acquires the knowledge, orientations, and practices that enable him or her to participate effectively and appropriately in the social life of a particular community. This process—really a set of densely interrelated processes—is realized to a great extent through the use of language, the primary symbolic medium through which cultural knowledge is communicated and instantiated, negotiated and contested, reproduced and transformed.” (Garrett & Baquedano-López ¬2002).
There is a rich body of literature on language socialisation of children in families the UK and internationally. This work is largely concerned with language socialisation of typically developing children, in established monolingual or multilingual social contexts. There are some studies about language socialisation with children who have communication disabilities (autism and substantial learning difficulties) but they are not with young children or necessarily based in the home.
In this paper we will review key studies of language socialisation across languages, cultures and disability and examine methodological issues that are raised when researching early multilingual socialisation around language disability. We will draw out the implications for undergraduate and postgraduate training and for professional development and practice.

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