Thread: Early bilingualism may increase stutter risk

Originally Posted by wandering

This study implies that bi-lingual (which could mean Mixedbreed OhMy!)

Could, but not would. My brother's kids are all bi-lingual and not mixed. Not all the same second language, however.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

(for instance if it was Birmingham, shouldnt the title read 1 in 5 muslims become stutters?)

When were you last in Birmingham KW?
There are lots of other minority groups there.

Originally Posted by jandajoy

When were you last in Birmingham KW? There are lots of other minority groups there.

not all that relevant to the point I was making.

Actually that was supposed to be a funny reference to Emporer Tud's assertions that Birmingham is being overrun by muslims. Does not change the substance of what I was saying.

The headline could have said fat children are more likely to stutter.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Actually that was supposed to be a funny reference to Emporer Tud's assertions that Birmingham is being overrun by muslims.

Yes, I thought it might have been and was going to comment but I'm too scared of his wrath..........

I wonder if fat kids do?
Ugly kids?

Hmmm interesting.

I studied linguistics at Uni many moons ago. The idea at the time was that it didn't matter how many languages (well, maybe 30 might be a *bit* much!) a child was exposed to as they developed -- they will pick out the correct phonemes and sounds relevant to each language and learn to apply them correctly.

This all takes place automagically up to about the 5 or 6 year old stage when the "critcial period" ends and it becomes hard to learn languages, or effectively, learn them with the same difficulty we adults generally have.

As far as stuttering is concerned -- in my experience, it was never anything to do with language acquisition or second/third/N language learning. If anything it's down to either 1) mental/physical disorder or 2) psychological, which I suspect is probably the issue here. And by psychological I don't mean anything scarey or insulting but general things like feeling rushed, too many thoughts to articulate quick enough, nervousness, etc. Same things we get as adults but for a child, magnified many more times.

Many kids when they are growing up and learning more than one language natively, will often have times when sounds/words/grammatical structures swap and glide -- it's nothing to worry about as they sort themselves out.

Pretty amazing things, the human brain.

Originally Posted by SwiftNeddyJ

general things like feeling rushed, too many thoughts to articulate quick enough, nervousness, etc.

Exactly.

Originally Posted by SwiftNeddyJ

"critcial period"

entering the "cognitive"

Interesting points and all part of the mystery. Good contribution.

or indeed, I wonder how many of the 317 were gay?

"Study shows that gay children may be at risk of stuttering!"

"Research shows that stuttering children may be more likely to become Gay"

the list could go on.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

"Research shows that stuttering children may be more likely to become serial posters on Teak Door". the list could go on.

You might be right there.
You might be right there.
You might be right there.

Originally Posted by jandajoy

Fair point, but have you read the original research?

Nope.
Basing my statement on the small article that got this ball rolling.

Originally Posted by wandering

Nope. Basing my statement on the small article that got this ball rolling.

Me too, mate. Me too.

Originally Posted by jandajoy

Originally Posted by kingwilly

"Research shows that stuttering children may be more likely to become serial posters on Teak Door". the list could go on.

You might be right there.
You might be right there.
You might be right there.

gotta green ya for that one.

Originally Posted by panama hat

Originally Posted by wandering

This study implies that bi-lingual (which could mean Mixedbreed OhMy!)

I was sarcastically implying that the author might use such put-down terminology in their bigotry.

Could, but not would. My brother's kids are all bi-lingual and not mixed. Not all the same second language, however.

My daughter is Aussie/American and understands English & Thai so obviously I agree. I was trying to emphasize the prejudiced goals of the article.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

"The research was conducted among 317 London children who were referred to a speech therapist when they were aged between eight and 10. One in five of the stutterers were bilingual, speaking English at school and a second language at home."

1 in 5 stutters were Bilingual!? The title could have read "Early monolingualism is FOUR times more likely to produce stutters than bilinugual children!"

Not really, I think. The critical point which is missing from the information we have at the moment is "what is the proportion of bilingualism in the local population from which this cohort is drawn"?

So, we need the other half of the equation. Take an age matched group (kids aged between 8 and 10) at random and look at the rate of bilingualism. If, say, only 1% of the matched cohort is bilingual, then the authors are right - stuttering is more likely in bilingual kids (they are significantly over represented amongst stutterers). If however the local community is very mixed, and there are 20% bilingual kids in the normal population, then the study is wrong.

My guess (FWIW) is that the critical point missing is that bilingualism is not present at a rate of 20% in the local school going population, and hence bilingual kids are more likely to stuter than non-bilingual kids.

Originally Posted by nidhogg

is that bilingualism is not present at a rate of 20% in the local school going population,

I'm not so certain about that, we are talking about migrant filled England here. this could well be a population of 45% bilingual children....

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Originally Posted by nidhogg

is that bilingualism is not present at a rate of 20% in the local school going population,

I'm not so certain about that, we are talking about migrant filled England here. this could well be a population of 45% bilingual children....

Indeed. As I said, thats the critical factor.