Language Delay in Macau

The Rui Cunha Foundation presents today, Tuesday, April 16th at 6:30pm, a seminar on the theme “Language Delay in Macau: Raising a Bilingual Child – Myths and Challenges”, co-organized by AJM – Macanese Youth Association in collaboration with the Association of Macau Portuguese Speaking Physicians. The session will have as guest speakers Joana Morgado Bento, Pediatrician, and Zélia Almeida, Speech Therapist.

According to the organizers, Macau has always been a unique territory. «The official languages are Chinese and Portuguese. English plays an unofficial but highly prominent role. It is the medium of instruction at a few schools and many children in Macau are bilingual or trilingual. Nonetheless, in the private practice setting where people work, the parents are very often worried about the speech development of their children».

There are many children in Macau who grow up surrounded by different stimuli resulting from the strong cultural diversity. And, although this is positive in the medium and long term, «many parents who are faced with a delay in their children’s speech and language development tend to associate it with a possible excess of cognitive information», which they consider may confuse, rather than develop, the natural phonological and syntactic capacity of children processing it. But is it a cause for concern?

The discussion is not new and much less exclusive to Macau. All over the world, there are many experts who debate this matter, stating for example that «if one or both parents are western this may be a risk factor for being diagnosed with language delay, when comparing to children in western countries and in the rest of the World». This lecture will focus on the topic featuring some clinical cases, as well as the evaluation, treatment, prognosis, and prevention of language delay in children» growing up in this local multicultural environment.

The event will be held in English.

Admission is free.
Don’t miss it!
For Macau, Further and Higher!

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