Navigating resources can be difficult, and differences in abilities, culture, and language can make it even more challenging. By bridging these differences, we aim to strengthen connections to the resources and support people need most. This section highlights programs and shares tools that address these challenges, fostering greater opportunities to access disability resources and creating stronger connections across abilities, cultures, and languages. We’re also spotlighting peer support spaces, caregiver networks, and community-based programs that offer encouragement and shared experience, because finding help is easier when we do it together.

Debunking Myths with Access to Data-Driven Information

Due to the lack of access Latino and Spanish-speaking or bilingual families in the United States have to data-driven information, myths around multilingualism and disability are continuously perpetuated.

Children from culturally and linguistically different backgrounds, including Latino children whose families speak Spanish, are both under- and over-identified in special education services. This means that often children who need therapy and educational supports do not receive them, and children who do not have a delay or disability get enrolled in special education.  Barriers families face in accessing intervention services lead to under-identification; children who need services are not receiving them. These barriers may include mismatches of language and culture between families and providers, a lack of intervention approaches designed for or tested with this population, low awareness of services and difficulty navigating complex systems, unreliable transportation, and inflexible work schedules. Once children enter school, they are often over-identified and enrolled in special education even though they do not need additional supports. This typically occurs because children are tested only in English due to a lack of providers who are bilingual or trained on appropriate bilingual assessments. A child who primarily speaks Spanish may perform poorly on English tests, but those results are not representative of their abilities.

Below are answers to questions that provide data-based information from research to help families and providers better understand the capabilities and needs of bilingual children.

How do I know if my child, who is exposed to multiple languages, has a language delay?

Ideally, testing is conducted by a bilingual provider, with training in assessing multilingual children, who can determine the child’s skills in their language(s). Assessment approaches should have  multiple forms of communication  and include:

1. Questionnaires focused on language concerns and experiences from parents (and in some cases teachers),
2. Observational language samples collected bilingually (for young children with no or very limited exposure to English, these may only include observations of caregiver-child interactions),
3. Standardized assessments that are valid for the child (e.g., for children who speak Spanish and English, these include the Preschool Language Scale-5^th Edition Spanish; the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment),
4. Evaluation of learning potential via dynamic assessment

Can children with disabilities become bilingual?

Bilingualism is considered a good gift for children, perhaps especially for children with disabilities.  Evidence only indicates the benefits and advantages of bilingualism among children,  including children with disabilities.

But if my child has a language delay, should we only speak English to make it “easier” by matching the language of the school?

No, speaking multiple languages does not cause language delays, and introducing or advancing only one language will not fix a delay. Children with language delays have those delays in any language(s) they speak. When a child is only “delayed” in one of their languages, that child has typically developing language and is not delayed in their language development. Bilingualism/multilingualism is dynamic; it is common for children to have a stronger language and for that to change over time based on patterns of exposure. To properly identify children with language delays, there needs to be evidence of delays in all the languages they speak or understand.

What are the benefits of continuing to speak native or primary language(s)?

Caregivers should speak the language(s) they are comfortable with and speak with native or near-native fluency. Speaking the native or near native language(s) advances children’s language development; non-native languages do not.  If a caregiver does not speak English fluently, speaking English to their child does not advance their child’s English skills. Children’s language skills develop cross-linguistically, and a strong foundation in one language will support the development of another language. This means having a strong foundation in Spanish will help advance English when children enter school. Children with language delays and disabilities in the US are at a higher risk for language loss, meaning they are likely to lose their family’s language if it is not supported in the home. This is an opportunity cost for children, as they lose out on social, family, and cultural connections, along with the benefits of bilingualism.

By empowering families with data-driven information and honoring their cultural heritage, intervention providers and caregivers can ensure that multilingual children with disabilities receive the supports they need to advance their social and academic development.

About the Author, Tatiana Peredo: I am a multilingual developmental psychologist and research assistant professor in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. My research focuses on addressing health and educational disparities through early language and literacy interventions. I have a special interest in working with Latino children and families residing in the US and abroad and in designing interventions that are both culturally and linguistically sustaining, meaning they honor, respect, and embed families’ language and culture. My research includes children who are at risk for early language and literacy delays, children with developmental language disorders, autism, and cleft palate. Much of my work focuses on teaching caregivers strategies to support their children’s language, speech, and early literacy development. In addition to my role as a researcher, I am also a parent to 3 children whom I am raising to be bilingual/multilingual. It is challenging but very important to me to give my children the gift of speaking and understanding multiple languages, and to help them maintain (and be proud of!) cultural and family connections.