Ahmed is an eight-year-old immigrant from Spain. He is having difficulty in learning English and often leaves off endings of words. Ahmed has no difficulties when speaking Spanish. In Spain, Ahmed was in the program for gifted learners. He is now struggling academically in the school he attends in the U. S. A. His teacher is considering referring him for the special education process. Does Ahmed have a language deficit?

Answer: No

Explanation:

Language deficit is defined as deficiency in terms of language that occurs in a person when he/she faces difficulty in sentence structure, understanding vocabulary, etc. It is consider as the disorder of language

According to the situation mentioned in question, Ahmed is not facing language deficit or disorder rather than he is experiencing language difference.

Language difference is the capacity of the person speaking the language other than the standard language spoken by people in majority. The major language can be obtained from cultural background, regional environment or as a first language.

Thus, when a person trends to speak other language than the standard language he can face difficulty in vocabulary, understanding etc. Thus, Ahmed is facing language difference as he is immigrant from Spain and can speak Spanish very well but faces difficulty in the USA because language is not common.