Children with Identified Disabilities

The most recent reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) stipulates that children should not be found eligible for special education services if their learning challenges are primarily the result of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. Consequently, teachers and specialists must take steps to assure that young children are assessed in their home language(s). Assessment results should also reflect the family’s knowledge of their child’s development, abilities, and learning challenges when determining eligibility for services and during the development of the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) or Individualized Education Plan (IEP). This means that a child cannot be found eligible for special education services merely because she speaks a language other than English or whose culture is different from the dominant culture.

A child with a disability who has delays in his communication abilities, including speech, will demonstrate these delays in each of the languages he speaks or is learning to speak. Their delays in communication are a manifestation of their cognitive, motor, and social delays and are not associated with the fact that they are growing up bilingually. In other words, the language delays in both languages co-exist with their disabilities, but bilingualism is not the “cause” for their delays (Baker, 2000a).

When language and communication IFSP or IEP goals are developed for a monolingual child with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, or autism, the child’s communication abilities are considered in comparison to other children with the same diagnosis and degree of delay. In a similar manner, bilingual children with disabilities benefit from having their communication abilities compared to other children with the same diagnosis and degree of delay as language and communication goals are explored and developed for them. The IFSP or IEP should therefore specify which instructional goals and objectives will be delivered in the native language, which will be delivered in English, and, if applicable, which will be delivered in an alternative or augmentative mode of communication, in ways appropriate for English Learners (Artiles & Ortiz, 2002)