Some children need extra support to learn languages. It can be difficult to identify these children, especially when the children are multilingual.
One can easily become insecure as to whether a multilingual child who knows little Norwegian is struggling with language in general, or whether he or she has too little experience with Norwegian to be able to speak it well.
In these cases, it can be useful to assess the child's language background, whether others in the family struggle to speak, read or write, and perhaps also the child's language skills.
Resources
Podcast on language development and disorders (in Norwegian)
Listen to the podcast Foreldrerådet: 249. Språkutvikling og -forstyrrelser (Language development and disorders) med førsteamanuensis i lingvistikk Pernille Hansen (shows.acast.com). Only available in Norwegian.
Interview guide about children's language environment at home and in their free time
The Home language form is useful for kindergarten teachers who are admitting new children and want to find out what languages the child hears daily.
The assessment can also be useful if you are wondering whether a child may be at risk of delayed language development.
Parent reporting tool (CDI) in Norwegian for children 18–48 months
CDI stands for MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. These are questionnaires where parents tick off in a list of words which words their child knows and which grammatical structures their child uses.
Use the search field in the menu item Adaptations in other langauges on the CDI website (mb-cdi.stanford.edu) to find and download tools for various languages, including English and Norwegian.
If you find forms for more than one of the languages a child speaks, you may investigate a child's development in several languages in the same way.
Parental questionnaire to assess phonological difficulties
If you are unsure whether a child has phonological difficulties, you can fill out this form about how well the child is understood by different people: Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) (csu.edu.au).
The form is available in many languages, including Norwegian, Polish and English.
More resources
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Multilingual childhood
An online resource inspiring kindergartens to encourage outdoor activities and language learning.
