ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the emerging factors in educational research that have highlighted the performance of bilingual or multilingual children in comparison with English peers. It summarizes theories of dyslexia and their impact on bilingualism, and presents case studies of screening and intervention with bilingual children. It provides the children who are multilingual have an enriched language environment that allows their intellectual development to flourish, despite some initial delays in language learning. Dyslexia is found in all languages including Asian languages such as Chinese and Japanese. The issue of multilingualism according to a recent report is becoming of increasingly higher relevance in the UK, with growing numbers of English as Additional Language (EAL) children in their schools. It has been argued that ethnic minorities are at a disadvantage within the UK education system, but the report indicates that disadvantaged white children with poor language skills are now showing the greatest difficulty in achievement, indexed by their results at GCSE.
