Language profile of French-Polish children aged 3 to 5 years old with developmental language disorder.

Abstract

Context. Bilingualism is a phenomenon that is subject to many factors that make it very difficult to identify the developmental trajectory.

Objectives. This study aims to describe the language profile of French-Polish bilingual DLD children aged 3 to 5 years and to identify specific features of their family environment that could influence language development.

Methods. In order to meet this objective, we constructed eight new language tasks based on studies dealing with language assessment with bilingual children and a DLD.

Results and conclusions. Our experimental protocol identified 3 children whose language development suggested DLD. Their profile is characterized by a difficulty in repeating unusual rare Polish and French words of increasing length, as well as a very limited ability to repeat complete sentences. They also have a particularly low lexical evocation although their understanding is normal or close to the standards. In future work, the computerised version should be updated and the sample size increased before it is made available to specialists dealing with French-Polish bilingual children.