Despite what many first-time parents may wish for, kids don't come with instruction manuals. Even seemingly straightforward developmental milestones, like when to introduce solid food, can vary across countries. And when it comes to language development, things get even more complicated. It can be challenging to gauge what is just a child's creativity, and what may be cause for concern.
Parents in search of assurance will likely turn to the experts, who use screening tools and tests to determine the best path forward. The problem is, these tools and tests aren't equally effective for all children, and children from marginalized populations often don't have their language-related developmental skills accurately assessed because of it, explained Andrea MacLeod.
"We have fewer tools we can turn to when we're looking at families that speak different languages or are from different backgrounds," said MacLeod, professor in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine and former Canada Research Chair in Bilingual Acquisition and Communication Disorders.
One prevalent challenge is that many screening tools are developed in English, and adapting them to other languages is more complex than mere translation, explained MacLeod.
For example, "You have to think about what are the common words in that language, what are the common sentence structures for young children and what are familiar contexts for the child."
