I have an 8 years old kid with LD that goes to a bilingual school in Spain since he’s 3 years old. His mother language is Spanish and in the school he’s taught in German. My question is if this kind of school can be harmful for him. Since 1 1/2 year he is receiving extra clases from a specialist in order to help him with his difficulties. We still do not know the exact problem he has, the psicologist says that most of it is emotional and the LD specialist that it is instrumental as well (dysortography). On the other hand, there are the suspect of AD. I will appreciate if someone can give me his opinion in order to decide to change the kid from school.Thanks
LD AND BILINGUAL SCHOOL
Here in Montreal the great majority of English children go to bilingual schools. When the immersion programs were well-designed and well-run, they worked amazingly well. Now having bought into various proven ineffective philosophies they are having problems, but no more than iunilingual schools. LD children do about as well or as badly in bilingual cschools as in a single language. What is needed is good teaching and good support in whatever language.
An exception can be made for children who have a severe language-specific disability, but otherwise it is not second the language that is the main cause of trouble.
Tossing in bilingual education can certainly make things more complicated. Many - most, in my experience - students with LD struggle much more with foreign langauges than other students. If you visit a library or use a search engine (Google, altavista) and look for “foreign language” and “learning disability” you should find a lot of deeper information about this.
This sounds like a very complicated child and situation, though, so I would not venture to say what kind of school would be helpful or harmful.