Dyslexia and bilingual children--does recent research assist identification?

This paper analyses some of the recent research into dyslexia in relation to monolingual and bilingual children. It focuses on the phonological approach to the identification of dyslexia. It reviews the literature on those aspects of phonological development which allow dyslexic children to be identified at increasingly younger ages. The literature on the phonological development of children who speak English as an additional language, and who are bilingual or multilingual, is then reviewed to compare the possibilities for identification of these children in comparison with those for monolingual children. Some methodological issues are critically appraised and suggestions are made for future research and developments in this area.