Question
My daughter Danielle was diagnosed with profound bilateral hearing loss at one month of age. She was implanted at 10 months. She hears the grass grow. Her receptive speech is about age appropriate, expressive is improving everyday. Danielle has turned two years old on February and is a social, happy, typical two year old. We are a bilingual house (Russian and English). I, the mother and primary caregiver and speak English to Danielle with the exception of a few phrases. The nanny speaks Russian to Danielle and so do the grandparents. Danielle's father tends to speak more Russian than English to our children (ages 4 and 10). AVT is conducted in English only. Danielle displays a comprehension of both languages and is able to follow one and two step directions in both languages. Most of her verbal vocabulary is in English, however some words she says are in Russian. The research indicates conflicting results. Some argue that one language is the way to go, yet others claim that there is no reason why a second language should not be learned. I tried to only resort to English but Russian is inevitable in our house and at family gatherings. What is your input on the matter, and what could be the long term effects in speech for Danielle?
Answer
Recent published studies demonstrate that some implanted children are learning two spoken languages very well. Successful bilingual learners demonstrate some characteristics that your daughter, Danielle, shares, including very early age at implantation, good speech perception skills with the device, and exposure to rich and complex models of the two spoken languages. The latter is a critical factor, and because your family is multi-lingual, you are able to provide Danielle with excellent language models.
My advice is that your family speak both English and Russian to Danielle, as you have been doing. From your report, it is clear that she is learning both languages, so let her be your guide on this. Just be sure of two things: Utilize good techniques of "clear speech" and language modeling with Danielle, as you would with any child who has a hearing loss; and, carefully monitor her growth in both languages to ensure that she continues to make progress at an acceptable rate.
Amy McConkey Robbins, M.S., CCC-Sp, is a speech-language pathologist in private practice who specializes in children with hearing loss and cochlear implants. She has published in numerous professional journals. Her current projects focus on children with implants who are bilingual, those with multiple disabilities and on the development of musical skills in this population.