Which foreign language is best for rising 9th grader with language disorder?

[Anonymous]

Choices are
Spanish
Latin
Mandarin
French

Curious-Is one better for a child with a language disorder? (MERLD or dyslexia)

[Anonymous]

It depends on the kid and teacher. I would not do mandarin. All are lots of memorization. Spanish is the most practical.

[Anonymous]

Is ASL a possibility?

[Anonymous]

FWIW, my SIL with dyslexia did much better with Japanese than Spanish. Like Japanese, Mandarin is so different from English that it might be easier for someone for whom learning to read English was hard.

[Anonymous]

Spanish or Latin, they are by far the most phonetically regular of the two.

It really depends how the dyslexia plays out. For some kids, the spoken component will let a dyslexic kid pull up their grade. For others, the spoke component is the hardest part, and Latin is easier.

[Anonymous]

For dyslexia if you're choosing between Spanish and French, unless the child has an interest or background/connection with French culture, choose Spanish. Spanish has a more direct association between sound and spelling. French has less, due to tricky silent letters.

[Anonymous]

We’ve been told (and agree based on dyslexic kid’s experience) that French is one of the worst languages for a dyslexic student to take (at least as a native English speaker).

Of the ones you’ve listed, I’d suggest Latin, Spanish, then French. I have no idea about how Asian languages might work with dyslexia so can’t weigh in on Mandarin. Italian is also not a bad option.

We’ve ended up being able to get a foreign language waiver. It will impact college options but we’re ok with that.

[Anonymous]

Can you look into doing ASL either through virtual school or dual enrollment? It’s perfect for these situations and my dyslexic son has really thrived. He is even considering furthering his study in college with a goal of becoming an interpreter.

[Anonymous]

The first two years of spanish aren't bad. I wish we waited till 8th or 9th to start. Spanish 4-5 are really hard. You only need two years for colleges in HS.

[Anonymous]

DS with significant expressive language delay (but not dyslexia) really really struggled with middle school Spanish. He’s now getting an A in 9th grade Latin I. It’s a lot more rules-based than modern languages, and there’s also the added benefit of it maybe helping his SAT vocab.

[Anonymous]

Definitely Spanish over French - spanish is much more formulaic and phonetic with less "exceptions" to the rule that need to be memorized

[Anonymous]

Spanish or Mandarin. Spanish as it's mostly regular. Mandarin as it's a tonal language and thus uses different parts of the brain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Choices are
Spanish
Latin
Mandarin
French

Curious-Is one better for a child with a language disorder? (MERLD or dyslexia)

Does your kid have MERLD and dyslexia? Because not knowing which between those two is very unusual.

They are very different.

[Anonymous]

Mandarin if they’re good at music/have a good ear for tones. The characters will be really hard for them, but the grammar is pretty easy and at least it’s all memorization rather than spelling from inconsistent pronunciations. Spanish otherwise since at least the letters are pronounced consistently there and it’s practical and similar to English. Latin if they like strict rules and patterns and are interested in the Roman Empire. French only if they’re really obsessed with French/some francophone culture; it was murder for my mildly dyslexic self.

[Anonymous]

My son took Latin.

He could not easily learn something that needed verbal fluency. Actually, he's already bilingual English/native language, but that took years and being exposed to both at once at birth led to a significant language delay when he was young. We knew he wouldn't be able to pick up a third language easily. Latin is entirely text-based, so it went much better. He's also motor-challenged, so ASL was a no-go.