Dialect or Language Delay?

There are different dialects of English.  For example, there is African American English (AAE) and Mainstream American English (MAE) just to name two.  African American English is widely used in America.  Many children who speak AAE are also learning MAE in school.  Therefore they are bidialectal or bilingual.  Unfortunately a lot of children who speak AAE are often referred for special education or speech language pathology services even though they do not need it.

Children who speak the MAE dialect acquire certain phonemes (d) ahead of AAE speakers.  And AAE speakers acquire certain phonemes (s, r) ahead of MAE speakers.  A study was done in which they focused on the teacher-student interactions about children's writing and making it voice visible.  It was stated that "what sounds "right" to young children will vary for developmental, situational, and sociocultural reasons." (pg 973)  Through the study it was found it is good to give children opportunities to interact in social situations with people who are good at negotiating language and cultural diversity.  It is also good for children to practice their own choices about language variety to use.  It would not be helpful to try and eliminate grammatical features of the child's home language.

There are phonological difference in MAE and AAE.  However if your child is saying /ret/ for "rest" this could indicate a development or disorder.  The DELV (Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation) screening test was designed to account for the diversity in American English and identifies children who are at risk or show signs of a speech or language disorder.  The test covers four areas of language: syntax, pragmatics, semantics, and phonology.


References:

http://www.umass.edu/aae/ADS07.ppt. Retrieved online March 20, 2012.

Griffin, P. (2012) Class 5 Morphology and Dialect Differences. [PowerPoint Slides] Retrieved online.

Griffen, P. (2012) Class 4 Phonology Speech Hearing. [PowerPoint Slides] Retrieved online.

Seymour, Roeper, & deVilliers. Technical Report, Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation. [PDF] Retrieved online from Activities, ClassRoom and Beyond Activity on BB.

Dyson, A.H. & Smitherman, G. (2009). The right (write) start: African American language and the discourse of sounding right. Teachers College Record, 111(4), 973-998.