Hello. My friend and her family came to Japan 5 years ago. The son was two and went straight to japanese day-care. He is diagnosed with language delay and his progress in Japanese and English is slow. He is now in the second grade japanese public school and he is struggling a lot. Also because the teacher not really care. When he plays by himself he talks japanese when nobody is listen, with the family they speak 95% English and japanese only for studies. The English part made a big leap in the past two years the japanese part not so much.
She is looking for advice if there is any support for kids, what is not in Tokyo, a private school, or cost a fortune. She is living in Chiba. She does not have or want to make a reddit account and I offered to ask the community. Thanks in advance for any help.
6 comments
Has she tried her city hall? They will have a children section with support that can point her in the right direction locally.
every kid is different but “learning delay” or “slow” from a monolingual japanese teacher really only means they dont understand how a bi-lingual kid develops differently. my kid also faced accusations he doesnt speak japanese early in elementary.
bi-lingual kids in general will always struggle compared to monolingual kids. its not till around 5th or 6th grade that the monolingual teacher will no longer notice the difference.
also remember that since the kid is learning two languages it takes time and effort. the kid will not just learn passively. you have to get them to regularly practice japanese to help them catch up.
Being ‘behind’ is actually very common for bilingual children. When I was pregnant my husband read and few books about bilingualism. It’s possible your friend’s school never had a bilingual child and doesn’t really know how to ‘deal’ with it. Bilingual children almost always catch up to their classmates by the time they are 7 or 8, and then they have the advantage of being bilingual!
First step is to go to city hall and have them assess the kid.
My son also has a language delay. I’ve went to the city hall since he was 2, but the city hall’s process is very slow, and they downplay a lot (they said it’s because the parents speak 3 languages, or because he doesnt get enough exposure from other kids). Finally after more than a year they decided my kid has to go to rehabilitation center to help with what he’s lacking, mainly language comprehension but also a other stuff.
Anyways someone recommended a place called Copel Plus. They have it in Chiba too and there’s a class for elementary kids [link here](https://copelplus.copel.co.jp/copelplusjr/). Tell your friend to look it up.
It’s kind of like rehabilitation center but without medical professional, but if the doctors (and the city hall) deem it’s enough for the kid then they can go there. If doctors and the city hall said a deeper rehabilitation is needed then the city hall can refer you to the rehab center they have (which is what happened to my son), it is free of charge.
But if only training is enough then they can go to Copel. It is subsidized by the government if you can get recommendation from the doctor about the delay. It can be cheap or even free, depending on the parent’s income.
We have the same issue. We got help from the city hall and they have arranged a spot for my son in a training center.
Development delay is diagnosed by a doctor, who is referred to you by the city hall. Depending on outcome, you get speech therapy, catch up classes etc at clinics, hospitals, special schools.
It’s not diagnosed by some random school teacher or the underpaid person sitting at the front of the city hall counter.