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From: rosalee shenker
Date: 11 Oct 2008
Time: 06:53:49 -0500
Remote Name: 70.51.21.81
thanks for the great questions Laura; the children in our study were both early simultaneous bilinguals and second language learners. Clearly the proficiency in a second language learners was not always as good as in the first since these were preschoolers. The early bilinguals had been exposed to 2 languages from birth. I agree that it is extremely important to evaluate linguistic proficiency in all the languages spoken before making treatment decisions and that if the decision to treat in only one language is taken, then spontaneous samples of the second should be secured regularly during the course of therapy. I am not sure if I can answer the question of whether proficiency in a language affects treatment outcome. We certainly do not see any repression of language development as a result of treatment for early stuttering.