Page 2 - Developmental Norms
P. 2
When I explain what I do to people who are not speech pathologists I tell them that I spend
my day sorting children. There are children who have difficulty communicating and then there are
children who simply speak another language at home or come from a diverse background.
Unfortunately, we as educators struggle to tell the difference between these two groups and special
education is filled with both types of children. So as a result, my job is to help the children who
really need my help and get the rest back into the classroom. The charts contained in this
document enable me to do this both effectively and easily.
This document contains updated, expanded, and brand new research on sound and language
development. Portions of these charts have collectively been downloaded over 20,000 times from
our website, have been used in the publication of eight books, and have been shared in national
and international presentations, 43 of which have become online professional development courses.
These accomplishments would be meaningless if it weren’t for the 300-500 children our team
accurately assesses each year. Weekly, we hear from people like you that these resources have
helped them do the same. Because we have chosen to share what we do, our hundreds of students
have turned into your thousands of students, and we couldn’t be happier.
The concept supporting this framework is simple:
In general terms, if sounds or structures exist in both
languages, they should not be affected in second language
production; if sounds or structures do not exist in both
languages, the influence of one language on another can be
expected. The goal then is to understand the different sound
systems and structures of a language in order to identify which
errors are of true concern.
Find more great resources at www.bilinguis cs.com. Copyright 2019 2
