Question

You hear Luis, a kindergartener from Mexico, playing with his friends on the playground at recess; one of the friends has a birthday. You hear Luis say things like "Cuantos años tienes? Can I have some cake? Feliz cumpleaños! Let's play with your new ball! " It is clear that Luis:

1) Is codeswitching, a typical linguistic behavior for persons who are bilingual.
2) Is showing signs of linguistic confusion, and may need to be evaluated for a possible language impairment.
3) Is just going through a temporary stage where he has difficulty differentiating Spanish from English.
4) Is showing clinically significant signs of a syntactic deficit in both languages, and needs to be evaluated immediately for an expressive language delay.

Answer 1

Luis is engaging in codeswitching, a normal behavior for bilingual children. It reflects his ability in both English and Spanish, signifying a positive aspect of his bilingual language development. His actions do not suggest the need for an evaluation of language impairment.

Step-by-step explanation:

The observations describe Luis as someone who is codeswitching, which is a typical and natural behavior for individuals who are bilingual. When children are exposed to multiple languages, they may switch back and forth between the languages seamlessly, reflecting their ability to function in a bilingual environment. This skill is especially notable in young children who are still in the early stages of language development, where they acquire and use words, phrases, and sentences from both languages within their linguistic repertoire.

Luis' behavior does not indicate language confusion, syntactic deficit, or the need for language impairment evaluation. Instead, his ability to use both English and Spanish demonstrates his developing bilingual proficiency. It's important to understand that for children like Luis, codeswitching demonstrates linguistic flexibility rather than a problem requiring intervention.