6 year old and language development

My daughter is turning 6. She is bilingual. At 3 1/2 she was only saying words in the 2 languages and she had her own special language. We were told to send her to kindergarten where her language will improve becasue of being around other kids her age. We did that and in a matter of 4 or 5 months she was making sentences. Her 2 languages are Norwegian and English. The English that she spoke was lost when starting the kindergarten becasue everyone spoke to her in that language. I was the only one speaking to her in English. We were told to get her hearing tested. Turned out she did have a hearing problem. She had surgery over a year ago. This past janurary she had her language level test and we were told it is at a 3 1/2 year old level and that we should not send her to school in August but to keep her back in the kindergarten another year. I have disagreed with that. My reason being....if she is around kids her own age and older her language will improve rather than staying with 3 and 4 year old in the kindergarten. I was told that would not happen. her speech will not improve being around kids her own age. I would like to know....is her speech going to develop better if she is around kids her own age and older or is it going to get better if she stays with kids 3 and 4 years old? Am i making the mistake of still ending her to school? Help!

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Your daugher should defintiely be in school. The question is what level she should be at. The risk you take in having her attend first grade is that she will not be able to keep up because of the language delay. At the kindergarten level this really isn't an issue. In other words, there's not much for her at this point to keep up with in kindergarten, and her language skills will improve. So, in either context her language is going to get better and better. But if she's in first grade it might be hard for her to keep up with the work as she strives to improve her language.