Learning Spanish (Second Language) to Improve Speech Delays

I would be careful with this choice. There are many different kinds of speech delays. For instance, if your daughter has Apraxia, I don't believe putting her in a Spanish immersion program would illicit the best results. For children with Apraxia, adding Occupational Therapy is an important piece because it is a motor planning issue.

Find out what kind of speech delay she has and make sure she is receiving all possible therapy.

As a child, I received speech therapy because I pronounced certain sounds incorrectly and I had an Auditory Perception issue. Putting me in a second language program would have been deadly. I could not differiente between the different sounds 'a' makes even in English. My father's first language is French, my grandmother was a French professor and I took two years of French in high school. Despite their attempts, I can not speak a word. I equally had a problem with Spanish. I had to take Spanish in college and for my teaching credential. I still cannot speak a word.

I have heard of the need to work different muscles in a person's mouths to help with Speech but you want to make sure that her frustrations will be low. If she is struggling to learn a second language she may miss important instruction for learning to read and write in English.

Good luck!

Hello, I am not a speech therapist. However, I did teach English As A Second Language for several years. It is my opinion that a speech delay is a speech delay in all languages. I don't know that it will hurt or help in learning another language. She may still be hard to understand, which could be frustrating to her.
Good luck with your precious family.
K. K.

I would speak to a speech thearpist who helps you make this decision based on your daughter. Go with a private therapist, not one from the school.

It really depends on her individual needs, speech articulation issues are a far cry from langague issues, and they so often go hand in hand that you need to know for sure. This too, is going to be the only way you know that her issues will disapear, but know that issues of speech delay can frustrate, and delay an otherwise congnivitely capable child if not remediated appropriately. Just being bright is not enough to overcome a process that is dysfunctional. Being bright is a potential, not a necessarily a gaurentee that she has additional processing skill to overcome this issue.

One thing to consider for Spanish, it is a more simple phonetic langague than English is, so it may very well be a good choice, as each letter has only one sound, so spelling is always phonetic, which can be a good base for many children. However, she will still need to learn to read and write in Englsih, so if there is any question about her phonemic decoding potential, the school may be right to question.

You need to make a decision based on your daughter, and the data you have about her own skills and challenges.

M.

You need to listen to Chantal A. below.

Is she getting occupational therapy or only her speech therapy? Is this only a speech delay? Or does she have Apraxia?

My son had a speech delay, got speech THERAPY from about 18 months old up until he was almost 3 years old. He is fine now. His was only a 'delay' in speaking. He did not have Apraxia or anything else. In all other developmental areas, he was advanced and in motor skills and cognition. He is now the most talkative one in the family.

My son is also Bi-Lingual. It does not mean, that if a child is bi-lingual or not, that they will then speak better.

Personally, I would not put your daughter in an immersion program. Each child is different, do not compare her to the other sibling... who probably never had any speech problems.

Or maybe your daughter needs a better Speech team/Therapist AND in addition to that, other services such as OT or even checking her hearing.... all of these things, works in Conjunction with each other....

all the best,
Susan

The second language I would recommend is American Sign Language. If both of you learn it together, she (and you) could use the signs to reinforce what she means until she can correctly pronounce difficult words or sounds. This would help facilitate communication while reducing frustration, and not interfere with her mastery of the English language or confuse speech patterns.

Actually I have heard the opposite. We are a bilingual family (Spanish and English) but my boys were both late talkers because of it. Their doctor said they just took a little longer to process the words and get the meaning. I don't know, just giving you a little insight into what happened with us.
I think speaking two languages is GREAT! I am actually a certified translator. But, it may be a bit difficult for someone so young who already has speech difficulties to take on another language.
L.