My interview on SBS radio has just been broadcast: Năng lực giao tiếp có ảnh hưởng đến sự phát triển của trẻ như thế nào? [How does communication affect a child's development?] https://www.sbs.com.au/language/vietnamese/audio/nang-luc-giao-tiep-co-anh-huong-den-su-phat-trien-cua-tre-nhu-the-nao
Với trẻ gốc Việt sinh sống ở nước ngoài, khả năng giao tiếp của các em chịu ảnh hưởng của nhiều yếu tố, trong đó có việc duy trì tiếng mẹ đẻ. Năng lực giao tiếp của trẻ nói hai hay nhiều thứ tiếng cần được quan tâm và nuôi dưỡng thế nào cho đúng? [For children of Vietnamese origin living abroad, their communication ability is influenced by many factors, including maintaining their mother tongue. How should the communication ability of children who speak two or more languages be properly cared for and nurtured?]
Here is the English translation of the Vietnamese transcript:
Communication is one of the basic human rights. Everyone has the right to say what they want in their own language, especially in their mother tongue (Article 5, Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, UNESCO, 2001). Likewise with children, they have the right to communicate, talk, express their feelings and it is our duty as adults to create the best conditions and opportunities for them to be able to promote these rights. maximally. How does communication affect children's intellectual, emotional, and spiritual development? You and Hong Van are invited to chat with Professor Sharynne McLeod from Charles Sturt University to learn more about this topic. Professor McLeod was voted by The Australian newspaper as the world's leading professor in the field of speech therapy (Discipline Leader in Speech and Language Pathology) for three consecutive years 2018, 2019, 2020 according to the quality and number of criteria. volume and influence. In 2021, she is the first foreigner to receive the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) Honor Award since its inception in 1944. Hi Professor McLeod, thank you for accepting the invitation to interview SBS Vietnamese together.
Prof. McLeod: Happy New Year. Hello friends! I am very pleased to speak on the topic of children's communicative competence.
With your experience and achievements in research on children's speech and language in more than 60 languages around the world, can you tell us what the ability to communicate means to a child's development?
Prof. McLeod: Thank you SBS for giving me the opportunity to talk about this topic today. Many people consider learning to speak as one of the most miraculous human development. The ability to communicate affects many aspects such as self, relationships, education, work, social participation, health and spiritual life. So I'm looking forward to talking to you about the effects of communication on the lives of children, especially children in Australia.
Can you explain a little bit about the concept of “communication”? In your opinion, what are the components of communication?
Prof. McLeod: Communication is a two-way interactive process. When it comes to communication, people talk about three main components: Language, speech, and hearing. Language is concerned with the ability to understand and express spoken, written, and sign language. Speech, the second component, the area that I am particularly interested in researching, is related to pronunciation, the ability to say sounds so that others understand me. For bilingual children like Vietnamese children in Australia, we see an interesting phenomenon that they often pronounce Vietnamese sounds influenced by English sounds or vice versa. Speech is also associated with problems with speech, such as hoarseness and stuttering. The third component of communication is Hearing, which is the ability to hear and receive sounds.Can you tell why some children have language and communication problems?
Prof. McLeod: It's a difficult question because in most cases (70%-80%) children come to speech therapy clinics, we don't know the underlying cause why children have developmental disorders. Speech Sound Disorder, it is not known why children have Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). We only know the cause of a small number of children with language and communication problems. These are cases where children have hearing problems or have congenital intellectual disabilities or brain diseases. However, we know how to help children overcome communication difficulties, improve pronunciation and language ability. So if you are concerned about your child's pronunciation and language, contact your local health center for a referral to free speech therapy services (if available with Medicare) and to other health care providers. private service. In some states, the service is also available in kindergartens and schools.
Professor and colleagues did a very famous study on the relationship between communication ability and the academic performance and mental life of children in Australia. Could you tell me about some of the main results of this study?
Prof. McLeod: This is a long-term study from 2003, also called Growing up in Australia. We took data from 10,000 children, including 5,000 1-3 year olds and 5,000 4-5 year olds. We have tracked children in nine data sets from 2003 to the present and have found many important results. One of those results is the relationship between children's communication ability and their learning capacity as well as their emotional and spiritual life. When children are 4-5 years old, 25% of parents and 22% of teachers have concerns about their child's pronunciation and language, I want to emphasize that this is the main language children use in the family, not 2nd or 3rd language. Thus, many people worry about the language ability of children aged 4-5 years old. We monitored and compared the reports of parents and teachers, the results of the NAPLAN national exam of children in the group of 25% worried parents with children in the group of 75% of parents who were not worried and found that when the children At 8-9 years old, parents of children in the 25% group will worry more about their children's literacy than parents in the 75% group. When they were 12-13 years old and 14-15 years old, they continued to have more learning problems than children in the 75% group. As they got older, they made more progress, but at a slower rate than the children in the other group. Their results on the NAPLAN test in all subjects of reading, writing, grammar, and arithmetic were lower than those in the other group.
Thus, when children are at school age, if parents have concerns about their child's language or pronunciation, it is more likely that the child will have learning problems when going to school, easily falling behind in school. throughout the high school years, compared with children whose parents had no concerns. During the period from 4-5 years old to 14-15 years old, were the children whose parents worried about their ability to communicate, received any support or intervention?
Prof. McLeod: That's a very good question. A large part of these children do not receive early intervention or support. It is not easy for teachers to find out that the children have problems with language and pronunciation skills because most of the children in this group are quiet and if the family and school don't pay attention, no one will do anything. , and they keep growing up with those difficulties, which leads to them not doing well in school.
Thus, there is a relationship between children's communication ability and learning ability. What about their spiritual and emotional lives? How does limited communication capacity affect the children's spiritual life?
Prof. McLeod: That's a very good question. In the group of children aged 8-9, we asked about their school experiences and found that for the group of children where 25% of their parents were worried when they were 4-5 years old, when they were 8-9 years old, they said know that children are bullied more, have fewer friends, and don't like going to school as much as children in the group of non-anxious parents. In short, if you have concerns about your preschooler's ability to communicate, you should seek help as soon as possible. If you haven't done it yet, it's never too late. Well-trained and professionally trained speech and speech therapists in Australia will help figure out what your child's problem is and the right treatment will have a positive impact on academics, social interactions and learning. socialization, interest in school, and ability to socialize with other children.
For children who speak two or more languages like Vietnamese children abroad, how should their communication ability be properly assessed?
Prof. McLeod: This is the most important question in today's talk. Some studies have mentioned the concept of "double disability", i.e. if a child has language and pronunciation problems but still speaks another language at home, it is considered a problem. its language disability becomes more severe and so many people recommend giving up the mother tongue. This is a mistake because our studies with thousands of children have shown that the ability to speak two or more languages is a superpower. There were no differences in reading, writing, math skills, and social communication between monolingual and multilingual children. We compared the NAPLAN test results of children who speak a language and children who speak a language other than English at home, and found that by grade 3, children in these two groups have equal achievements in all categories. reading, writing, arithmetic, and grammar items.
So how to distinguish children with general language problems from children with one language delay due to exposure to two or more languages?
Prof. Mcleod: If you're worried because your child doesn't speak English well while being very good at Vietnamese, it's not a problem with speech or language, and don't go to a speech therapist. Only see a speech therapist if you find that your child does not speak Vietnamese well even though it is your family's home language, or both Vietnamese and English are not good. That is, if you stutter, speak no one understands, pronounce consonants that are not found in both Vietnamese and English, you speak but family members like grandparents, aunts and uncles who often listen to you also If you don't understand, then it's time to intervene.
Thank you to Professor Sharynne McLeod for this wonderfully informative and very helpful talk, especially for families with children of a language development age.
... Wishing Vietnamese families in Australia as well as in other countries around the world always keep their bilingual ability, speak both English and Vietnamese, what Professor McLeod calls superpower, superpower. Wishing you a healthy and peaceful new year 2022.
