Ciara O'Toole – författare

Bilingual language exposure is highly variable, with wide-ranging influences on early language skills. This underscores the need for understanding what to expect in early language acquisition so that those with typical language development can be differentiated from those who are struggling or at risk, and so requiring early intervention. One of the key ways to look at language development in very young children is to investigate their vocabulary development, and for bilingual children, this means measuring their abilities in both languages. This book takes an important step in this direction: it documents the expressive vocabularies of children aged 16-45 months who were exposed to different language pairs and bilingual contexts, and investigates the risk and protective effects of various environmental factors. In each of the six studies, the vocabularies of typically-developing children were measured using the vocabulary checklist of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories and its adaptations to other languages. Developmental and language background questionnaires provided additional information on children’s developmental history, risk factors for language impairment, language exposure, as well as parental education and occupation. This harmonised methodology was designed within COST Action IS0804 (Language Impairment in a Multilingual Society: Linguistic Patterns and the Road to Assessment). The outcomes of this cross-linguistic research contribute towards answering theoretical questions regarding early bilingual vocabulary acquisition. They also have clinical relevance, potentially assisting speech-language pathologists and those interested in early language development in distinguishing between clinically significant bilingual delays and the natural consequences of bilingual exposure. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.

Language Development and Language Impairment offers a problem-based introduction to the assessment and treatment of a wide variety of childhood language developmental disorders. Focuses for the most part on the pre-school years, the period during which the foundations for language development are laidUses a problem-based approach, designed  to motivate students to find the information they need to identify and explore learning issues that a particular speech or language issue raisesExamines the development of a child’s phonological system, the growth of vocabulary, the development of grammar, and issues related to conversational and narrative competenceIntegrates information on typical and atypical language development

Language Development and Language Impairment offers a problem-based introduction to the assessment and treatment of a wide variety of childhood language developmental disorders. Focuses for the most part on the pre-school years, the period during which the foundations for language development are laidUses a problem-based approach, designed  to motivate students to find the information they need to identify and explore learning issues that a particular speech or language issue raisesExamines the development of a child’s phonological system, the growth of vocabulary, the development of grammar, and issues related to conversational and narrative competenceIntegrates information on typical and atypical language development

In recent times, there has been a growing interest in how Celtic languages are acquired, due to ongoing efforts for minority language revitalisation through immersion education. With contributions from a team of leading scholars, this is the first volume to bring together state-of-the-art studies on language development in both children and adults learning the three most prominent Celtic languages spoken in the UK and Ireland: Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Irish. It focuses on how core language areas - phonology, lexicon, morphology and syntax - are acquired by different groups of learners, providing key insights into theoretical and empirical debates around bilingual language development and linguistic change more generally. The volume also covers the socio-cultural and educational context within which these languages are learnt, highlighting how these factors affect linguistic outcomes in a minority language context. It is essential reading for academic researchers and students in developmental linguistics, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and Celtic languages.