title: Does simultaneous bilingualism aggravate children's specific language problems?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is little data on whether or not a bilingual upbringing may aggravate specific language problems in children. This study analysed whether there was an interaction of such problems and simultaneous bilingualism.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 5- to 7-year-old children with specific language problems (LANG group, N = 56) or who were typically developing (CONTR group, N = 60). Seventy-three children were Swedish-Finnish bilingual and 43 were Swedish-speaking monolingual. Assessments (in Swedish) included tests of expressive language, comprehension, repetition and verbal memory.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Per definition, the LANG group had lower scores than the CONTR group on all language tests. The bilingual group had lower scores than the monolingual group only on a test of body part naming. Importantly, the interaction of group (LANG or CONTR) and bilingualism was not significant on any of the language scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Simultaneous bilingualism does not aggravate specific language problems but may result in a slower development of vocabulary both in children with and without specific language problems. Considering also advantages, a bilingual upbringing is an option also for children with specific language problems. In assessment, tests of vocabulary may be sensitive to bilingualism, instead tests assessing comprehension, syntax and nonword repetition may provide less biased methods.
authors.affiliation: University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Marit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Korkman
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stenroos
authors.forename: Annika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mickos
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Westman
authors.forename: Pia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ekholm
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Byring
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D014825:Vocabulary