Unique Challenges of Helping Your Child with Speech Delays While Living Abroad WRITTEN BY RUSSEL MICHELSON
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elping your child overcome delayed speech is challenging enough when you’re living in a familiar environment. Those problems can become compounded when you move to a foreign location. As the parent, it is up to you to identify potential hurdles and ensure that your child continues getting the help they need. Just as your Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) has likely explained, consistent practice is the key to successful speech therapy. Keeping up with treatment is possibly one of the issues you’re facing in a new place. However, signing your child up for online sessions can help them connect with a familiar face and continue practicing their newly acquired skills.
Exposing Your Child To a New Language Considering that your child struggles with speaking at home, exposure to an additional language may add to the difficulty. The child may grow frustrated with the new and unknown terms and words. Don’t let that worry you because research shows that being bilingual or multilingual is good for a young developing mind. Hearing multiple languages isn’t necessarily a problem for many children with speech delays. Trying to learn a new language outside the home, like in school or daycare, could be a welcome boost. The variety of sounds and situations leads, in some cases, to improved cognitive and problem-solving skills.
Get the Family To Join In Picking Up a New Language Kids learn quickly when their parents help with reading, singing, reciting poems, and providing lots of love and positive encouragement. Make the learning
experience fun and exciting by getting the entire family to join in the exercise of picking up a new language. Get a friend to guide you through kid-friendly activities like going to the park or buying a sweet treat while demonstrating native pronunciation, diction, and vocabulary. Be open about how tricky language can be for adults. Laugh at your own mistakes to convey that it’s okay to take your time learning new skills. Involve the family in practicing at home and sharing tips they might pick up from social interactions at work or school.
Simply Going To School and Making Friends Helps Parents are typically worried about their kids going to school in a new city where most other children speak an entirely different language. Experts suggest that young children are more flexible in adapting to a new environment because they haven’t developed complex social preconceptions like adults. Children are also more receptive to a foreign language since they have yet to form permanent connections between words, sounds, and the context in which they are expressed. You might find that your kids are more adept at picking up new terms and the local language by interacting with peer groups. Don’t be surprised if a couple of the other kids take your child under their wing to show them around and help them adjust. Impromptu lessons in pronunciation and the correct usage of new words could help your child progress quickly.
Dealing with Speech Delays Amidst a Cultural Shock Dealing with the cultural shock, new INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2021 | 30
holidays, unfamiliar music and songs, and folk tales is more challenging for a child with speech delays. As parents, you can help in the transition process by being more accepting when your child wants to celebrate festivals and holidays they learn about in school. Kids will also likely want to follow local customs, dressing styles, and food habits similar to their friends simply to fit in with their peers. Encourage their interests and follow cues to have cultural experiences that help expand their exposure to words, sentences, and pronunciations.
Sign Up for Language Sessions Practicing as a family helps a child get through hesitation and nervousness. Remember that being unable to speak and understand an additional language can affect anyone’s self-confidence, but it can
