Language difference vs. disorder
A true disorder appears in every language a child speaks. Difficulty only in the newer language is a difference — and differences do not need therapy.
Cross-Linguistic Insights
A bilingual child should not be measured against a monolingual yardstick.
A Haitian Creole–English child's development follows its own well-documented pattern. Our clinicians and our tools are built around that, not around translated English norms.
Your child's language pair
What sounds and grammar patterns to expect, and what would genuinely be a concern.
Haitian Creole + English
Kreyòl has no /θ/ or /ð/, and marks tense with words rather than endings.
Spanish + English
Spanish has five vowels; English has around fourteen.
Mandarin Chinese + English
Mandarin is tonal and does not use final consonants the way English does.
Bengali + English
Bengali uses subject-object-verb order and no gendered pronouns.
Arabic + English
Arabic has three vowels and sounds English does not, and vice versa.
The principles behind it
Cross-linguistic transfer
Kreyòl has no /θ/ sound, so a Kreyòl-English child saying 'tink' for 'think' is transferring, not erroring. We score these patterns separately.
Typical bilingual development
Vocabulary is often split across languages. Counted together, bilingual children match their monolingual peers.
Dialect considerations
African American English, Caribbean English, and regional Spanish varieties are rule-governed systems, not delayed speech.
Code-switching
Mixing languages in one sentence is a sign of two healthy systems working together, not confusion.
Assessment considerations
We pair parent interview, language sampling in both languages, and dynamic assessment instead of relying on English-normed tests.
In practice
When a caregiver tells our Care Guide that their child hears Kreyòl at home and English at daycare, the follow-up questions change, the milestone comparisons change, and the clinician shortlist changes. That is the difference between translating care and making care navigable.
Try the Care Guide