Bilingual children with primary language impairment: issues, evidence and implications for clinical actions

Functional Language Proficiency in Bilingual Children: A Conceptual Framework, Culturally Responsive Practice, and Measurement Approach

PURPOSE

Functional language proficiency is presented as a conceptual framework that builds upon cultural-linguistic assets in bilingually developing children and bridges the theory of natural translation, translanguaging, and language brokering practices. A novel task was developed based on this framework for quantifying Spanish-English bilingual children's functional language proficiency. The development, feasibility, face, and convergent validity of the Functional Language Proficiency (FLiP) task are detailed as part of this work, as well as its application and utility as a culturally responsive practice.

METHOD

A conceptual framework and novel task were developed based on bilingual communication practices. This article details the conceptual framework and development process of the task, including considerations for cultural relevance, memory demands, linguistic complexity, and scoring procedures. The FLiP was administered to 90 Spanish-English learning Latino children in first, second, and third grade (30 per grade).

RESULTS

All 90 first-, second-, and third-grade children completed the task, generating an expectedly wide range of proficiency profiles across both languages. Importantly, 86% of the children reported that they had engaged in these language practices in their daily lives. There was strong interrater reliability (94%), and scores on the FLiP were positively correlated with measures of language sample analyses in both languages.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study showed that the FLiP was an age-appropriate, asset-based, and culturally relevant task for measuring functional language proficiency in most Spanish-English school-age bilinguals. The role of functional proficiency is discussed, along with future research directions including validation, item analysis, and task refinement.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.28946261.

The Dimensionality of Language in Spanish-English Bilingual Children

PURPOSE

This study investigated the dimensionality of language in bilingual children using measures of semantics and morphosyntax in English and Spanish.

METHOD

Participants included 112 Spanish-English bilingual children ages 4-8 years from a wide range of language abilities and dominance profiles. Using measures of semantics and morphosyntax from both norm-referenced assessments and language samples, we evaluated the structure of language in bilingual children. We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to estimate dimensionality, comparing seven primary models that represented different theoretical structures of language in bilinguals.

RESULTS

Although none of the models analyzed yielded good fit across all indices evaluated, the best-fitting CFA model was a two-correlated factor model with separate factors for Spanish and English, which included measures from only norm-referenced assessments.

CONCLUSIONS

Language in Spanish-English children seems to represent two related but distinct constructs, even in bilinguals from a wide range of language abilities and dominance profiles. Clarifying how language in bilinguals is conceptualized and impacted by the concurrent development of two languages is an area that requires further research. Understanding the dimensionality of language in bilinguals can further assist our knowledge of how language develops in bilingual children.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.28687466.

Barriers and Facilitators to Assessment Practices in Linguistically Diverse Children: A Preliminary Application of Theoretical Domains Framework

PURPOSE

Linguistically diverse children face health disparities in special education services in part due to limited linguistic responsivity in communication assessment practices. This study uses the first application of the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to reveal the various factors that affect the implementation of linguistically responsive practices and their respective barriers and facilitators.

METHOD

Two focus groups were conducted in Oregon with a total of nine speech-language pathologists, most of whom were multilingual. A deductive and inductive analytical approach in a two-stage process was employed, whereby barriers and facilitators were deductively coded using TDF domains (content analysis) and analyzed for subthemes within each domain as well as barriers and facilitators for each domain. Barriers and facilitators were summarized across overarching themes.

RESULTS

A total of 33 themes were extracted from all the domains. The most commonly coded TDF domains in the focus group transcript were knowledge (69%), beliefs about consequences (48%), and environmental context and resources (33%). The overarching themes identified across domains were related to the role of family, flexibility and adaptability, limitations of assessment tools, need for help through experts, research and training, and approach to language differences.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings from this study offer a precise initial characterization of the barriers and facilitators to linguistically responsive communication assessment of children from birth to age 5 years. Future research should focus on supporting facilitators while eliminating barriers to ensure equitable service provision for all children.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.28516196.

Speech-Language Pathologists' Perspectives on Language Assessment in Bilingual Children

PURPOSE

This study used a semistructured open interview approach to gather information from school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) regarding their assessment practices for bilingual children with suspected language disorders.

METHOD

Phone interviews were conducted with 25 school-based SLPs across the United States. The interviews explored assessment topics related to tool selection and rationale and the integration of assessment data to determine diagnosis and treatment eligibility.

RESULTS

The results of this study suggest that SLPs use a combination of norm-referenced and informal assessments when evaluating bilingual children. Informal measures, such as parent/teacher interviews and language sampling, were relied upon for diagnostic decisions, contrasting with the emphasis on norm-referenced testing observed in previous research. District policies and guidelines influenced norm-referenced assessments. Informal tools were used to capture natural language use, provide a comprehensive view of bilingual abilities, and gather detailed case histories.

CONCLUSIONS

School-based SLPs integrate norm-referenced and informal measures in their bilingual assessment practices, with a notable reliance on informal assessments for diagnostic decision making. This approach contrasts with the reliance on norm-referenced measures typically observed in monolingual assessment practices, reflecting SLPs' potential recognition of limitations and biases in norm-referenced tests when used with bilingual children. The findings suggest that SLPs are aware of and use culturally sensitive diagnostic practices.

Where to start: Use of the bilingual multidimensional ability scale (B-MAS) to identify developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilingual children

PURPOSE

The identification of developmental language disorder (DLD) is challenging for clinicians who assess bilinguals. This paper introduces a protocol-based approach, the Bilingual Multidimensional Ability Scale (B-MAS), for expert raters to identify DLD in bilinguals.

METHOD

Three bilingual speech-language pathologists (SLPs) reviewed 166 Spanish-English bilingual children's profiles, which included performance on direct (morphosyntax, semantics, and narrative tasks) and indirect (parent/teacher survey) measures in both languages. A multidimensional scale (0-5) was adopted to rate children's performance. A diagnosis of DLD was made if at least two raters assigned a summary rating of ≤2.

RESULT

Analysis of the scores on the B-MAS resulted in the identification of 21 children as having DLD. Though different strategies were employed to make decisions, the three SLPs demonstrated high inter-rater agreement across different ratings (intraclass correlation coefficient values ranged from .83 to .90).

CONCLUSION

For bilingual populations that are understudied and for which gold standards of assessment are not available, the B-MAS can be adopted as a starting point to study DLD or as a reference standard to develop new assessment tools in that population. Clinically, this protocol could be tailored and evaluated by a group of SLPs serving a large population of a particular bilingual group for diagnostic purposes.

Speech Sound Production in Australian English-Dutch Bilingual Children

PURPOSE

Determining if suspected speech errors in bilingual children are due to bilingual language acquisition or a speech sound disorder is challenging for speech-language pathologists (SLPs). This study investigates how the productions of nonword imitation (NWI) tasks of English-Dutch bilingual children differ from other speech tasks, both in direct comparison and relative to norm data.

METHOD

Seventy-seven typically developing Australian English-Dutch bilingual children aged 4-12 years participated in this study. All children completed the Dutch test battery called the Computer Articulation Instrument. Data on language exposure were collected through parent/caregiver questionnaires.

RESULTS

The English-Dutch bilingual children scored lower than the norm data on the picture-naming and consistency task but not on NWI and diadochokinesis tasks. Specific phonological processes were more evident in bilingual children, and these patterns differed according to the task. The consistency task revealed a unique pattern of production in bilingual children.

CONCLUSIONS

The results confirm that the NWI task may be the most language neutral. Detailed phonological error analysis indicates that SLPs assessing English-Dutch bilingual children should pay attention to voice onset time, fricatives, and vowels.

The Roles of Language Ability and Language Dominance in Bilingual Parent-Child Language Alignment

PURPOSE

In the current study, we examined the alignment of language choice of bilingual parent-child dyads in play-based interactions.

METHOD

Forty-four bilingual Spanish-English parent-child dyads participated in a 10-min naturalistic free-play interaction to determine whether bilingual children and their parents respond to each other in the same language(s) across conversational turns and whether children's language ability and children's and parents' language dominance affect language alignment. Children's language ability was indexed by the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment. Logistic regression was used to test the effects of children's language ability and children's and parents' language dominance on the alignment of language choice.

RESULTS

Results revealed that children and parents largely aligned their language choice and that children's and parents' language dominance, but not children's language ability, influenced alignment. Patterns of alignment differed between children and parents. Children aligned to their dominant language, and this was true for both English- and Spanish-dominant children. In contrast, English-dominant parents aligned equally to both languages, whereas Spanish-dominant parents aligned significantly more to Spanish.

CONCLUSION

Together, these findings suggest that bilinguals' alignment of language choice is deeply sensitive to language dominance effects in both children and adults but that parents may also choose their language strategically in conversations with their children.

Different paths to multilingualism in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Naturalistic and non-interactive

This study is one of the few research efforts investigating unexpected non-interactive foreign language acquisition in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Participants included 46 English-Hebrew-speaking children (ages 4;10 to 12;0): 14 autistic children who acquired English via non-interactive input (ASD-NI); 12 autistic children (ASD-Nat), and 20 non-autistic children with typical language development (TLD-Nat) who acquired English and Hebrew naturalistically. Morpho-syntactic abilities were assessed using Sentence Repetition tasks in both languages. The results showed no group differences for morpho-syntax in English; in Hebrew, the ASD-NI group scored similarly to the ASD-Nat group but lower than the TLD-Nat group. Individual performance differences between Hebrew and English were observed across all groups. Additionally, correlations between exposure and SRep scores were found in both groups for Hebrew but not English. These findings highlight diverse paths to language acquisition in ASD, with children acquiring foreign languages via both naturalistic and non-interactive input.

The effects of heritage multilingualism on foreign language learning: a comparison of children with typical language development and developmental language disorder

Introduction

Both multilingualism and developmental language disorder (DLD) may be associated with inferior performance in the majority language, albeit for different reasons. At the same time, there is a growing body of evidence that multilingualism may have a positive effect on foreign language performance. This study tests the hypothesis that the positive effects of multilingualism on foreign language learning may be smaller in children with DLD compared to their multilingual peers with typical language development.

Methods

In a 2 × 2 design, we compare the effects of multilingualism and DLD on English as a foreign language performance and majority language performance of multilinguals and monolinguals with and without DLD. The participants were primary school children (aged 9-13) acquiring Dutch as the majority language and learning English as a school subject. English skills were measured with a vocabulary test, a grammar test and the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN). Dutch skills were assessed with the Litmus Sentence Repetition Task and the MAIN task. The MAIN narratives in both languages were analyzed for fluency, lexical diversity, syntactic complexity and grammatical accuracy. The control variables included age, working memory, declarative memory, procedural memory and (for English) amount of extracurricular exposure and length of instruction. Data were analyzed by means of multilevel linear regression.

Results

The results demonstrate that both multilingualism and DLD were associated with lower scores on the Dutch Sentence Repetition Task and lower grammatical accuracy of narratives. In English, the multilinguals outperformed monolinguals on all measures, except grammatical accuracy of narratives, and the interactions between Background and Group were not significant. Another strong predictor of EFL performance, along with the multilingual status, was extracurricular exposure to English.

Multilingualism and developmental language disorder in Southeast Asian speech-language pathology practice: An international survey

PURPOSE

This study aims to explore the current practices and challenges faced by speech-language pathologists in three Southeast Asian countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam) in assessing and treating multilingual children with developmental language disorder.

METHOD

A survey was designed and administered to 110 speech-language pathologists across Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The survey contained 60 questions on current practices and knowledge of existing resources for assessing and treating multilingual children with developmental language disorder. Data were analysed to identify relationships between practices and demographic variables including country of origin, years of service, and speech-language pathologists' multilingual status.

RESULT

Current practices reveal little knowledge and/or use of standardised tests for developmental language disorder across countries, but relatively high self-perceived competence when working with multilingual clients for Indonesia and Malaysia. However, several challenges were perceived across the board in practice with multilingual children, including socioeconomic challenges (i.e. costs involved for families and social status), insufficient training on the relevant topics, and limited access to appropriate tools and resources in their current practice.

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest the need for training and appropriate assessment tools to ensure the adoption of evidence-based service delivery for multilingual caseloads, minimising misclassification of developmental language disorder and boosting confidence levels in speech-language pathologists in Southeast Asia.

How Arabic diglossia affects the performances on phonological working memory tasks: Research evidence among first graders

The effect of bilingualism on verbal learning and memory was explored in different studies. Different researchers assume that the Arabic diglossia, represents a case of bilingualism in the lingual context. Hence, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of diglossia in Arabic on the phonological working memory among beginner readers. Forty-one Arabic first graders (M = 7.13, SD = .73) were administered three tasks of phonological working memory in two versions (i.e., spoken and standard language); Two tasks were designed to test verbal retrieval and one task was designed to test remembering of instructions. The participants showed significant diglossic differences between spoken and standard stimuli in verbal retrieval tasks while no such significant differences appeared in remembering of instructions' task, especially, when the processing demands increased. In addition, the findings may shed light on the importance of developing research tools and tasks with a higher level of sensitivity in order to examine the diglossic effect on memory functions in general and verbal working memory in particular. The results were discussed considering the impact of the Arabic diglossia on cognitive and memory processing skills.

Updates on Clinical Language Sampling Practices: A Survey of Speech-Language Pathologists Practicing in the United States

PURPOSE

Language sample analysis (LSA) provides many benefits for assessing, identifying therapy goals, and monitoring the progress of children with language disorders. Despite these widely recognized advantages, previous surveys suggest the declining use of LSA by speech-language pathologists (SLPs). This study aimed to provide updates on clinical LSA use following the recent introduction of two new LSA protocols, namely, the Sampling Utterances and Grammatical Analysis Revised (SUGAR) protocol and the Computerized Language Analysis KIDEVAL program.

METHOD

Survey data from SLPs practicing in the United States (N = 337) were used to examine rates of LSA use, methods, and protocols. Factors predicting LSA use and reported facilitators and barriers were also examined.

RESULTS

Results indicated that 60% of SLPs used LSA in the past year. LSA skill level, training, and serving preschool or elementary school children predicted LSA use, whereas workplace, caseload, and years of experience were not significant predictors. Most SLPs reported using self-designed LSA protocols (62%), followed by Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (23%) and SUGAR (12%) protocols. SLPs who did not use LSA reported limited time (74%), limited resources (59%), and limited expertise (41%) as barriers and identified additional training on LSA computer programs (52%) and access to automatic speech recognition programs (49%) as facilitators to their adoption of LSA.

CONCLUSIONS

Reported rates of LSA use and methods were consistent with previous survey findings. This study's findings highlight the ongoing needs for more extensive preprofessional training in LSA.

The Effect of Age of First Exposure on Vocabulary, Mean Length of Utterance, Morphosyntactic Accuracy, and Semantic and Sentence-Level Patterns in the First 2 Years of French Second-Language Learning by Preschool- to Adolescent-Age Mandarin Speakers

BACKGROUND

Bilingual assessment is particularly difficult in the very first period of children's second language (L2) exposure. This exploratory, longitudinal study examined L2 learning after 1 and 2 years of L2 exposure by young immigrants and how it is affected by their age at first exposure to the L2 (AoE).

METHOD

Participants were 18 immigrants ranging in age from 2;11 to 14;2 (years;months), all within their first year in Montreal at Time 1, enrolled in a French school or day care, and from a Mandarin first language background. Participants were tested again a year later. Measures included receptive and expressive French vocabulary tests and conversational language samples analyzed using traditional measures of mean length of utterance (MLU) and morphological accuracy as well as novel measures of semantic and sentence-level patterns.

RESULTS

Performance was relatively high already at Time 1 and increased significantly at Time 2 in both vocabulary and MLU. At Time 2, vocabulary scores were below normative values, whereas MLU was within expected values relative to monolingual and simultaneous bilinguals for the majority of the participants. However, higher MLUs were accompanied by more instances of both semantic errors and creative semantic strategies. French performance was strongly related to AoE; with amount of exposure equivalent, older participants outperformed the younger ones on MLU and vocabulary. Semantic errors and creative uses were strongly predicted by AoE; however, morphological accuracy and number of agrammatical utterances were not.

CONCLUSIONS

This initial period of French learning involved a rapid growth spurt for most of the participants. We argue that the pattern observed, particularly among the older children, constitutes an early stage of L2 learning characterized by long utterances that are also frequently hard to understand as speakers encounter challenges and use creative strategies in their attempt to convey meaning. Comparison with normative reference bases for monolinguals and bilinguals with greater cumulative L2 exposure who have similar MLUs should be done with much caution during this early period.

Speech-Language Outcomes in the COVID-19 Milieu for Multilingual Jamaican Preschoolers and Considerations for Telepractice Assessments

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to characterize the communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility (i.e., how children use communication and how well they are understood across everyday life) of typically developing (TD) bilingual Jamaican preschoolers and those with functionally defined speech sound disorders (fSSDs) in the COVID-19 milieu. Findings were also compared to an existing corpus of baseline data to document and explore differences in children's speech-language outcomes secondary to pandemic-related social restrictions.

METHOD

Thirty bilingual Jamaican preschoolers, 21 TD and nine with fSSDs, were assessed during the pandemic via telepractice. Association and univariate mean testing were completed to characterize children's communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility. Data were then compared to an existing corpus of baseline data (collected in person between 2013 and 2019), which included direct child assessment and parent reports and consisted of TD (n = 226) Jamaican Creole-English-speaking preschoolers and those with fSSDs (n = 39) to compare performance profiles across data sets. All participants attended schools in Kingston, Jamaica.

RESULTS

Measures of communicative participation remained stable in the context of the COVID-19 milieu for children in the TD and fSSD groups, but functional speech intelligibility outcomes for children with fSSDs deviated between in-person findings collected from children pre-pandemic. Between-groups differences were also found on measures of speech production accuracy but were no longer significant when considering telepractice as a covariate.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this investigation serve to characterize the communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility of TD bilingual Jamaican preschoolers and those with fSSDs in the COVID-19 milieu. By extension, the results comparing data from preschoolers collected during the pandemic to an existing corpus of baseline data from a different group of preschoolers provide critical insights about multilingual children's speech-language outcomes in the context of acutely changing environmental circumstances.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25461505.

Speech Disfluencies in Bilingual Lebanese Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter

PURPOSE

Prior studies have shown that bilingual children who do not stutter (CWNS) exhibit a high number of disfluencies in both languages, increasing the risk of misidentification by speech-language pathologists as children who stutter (CWS). Conversely, there is a risk of misidentifying CWS with a relatively low incidence of disfluencies as CWNS. This study aims to explore the qualitative and quantitative distinctions in speech disfluency profiles between CWNS and CWS. The assessment covers both the dominant and nondominant language to examine the impact of language dominance on disfluency patterns.

METHOD

A total of 92 Lebanese bilinguals (70 CWNS and 22 CWS) from 4;06 to 7;06 (years;months) were included. Language dominance was determined based on parental assessments. Spontaneous and narrative speech samples were collected for each child in both languages and all stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) and other disfluencies (OD) were coded.

RESULTS

On average, CWNS showed a significantly lower percentage of total SLD, weighted SLD, SLD subtypes, and iterations compared to CWS. However, the number of disfluencies of CWNS exceeded monolingual clinical standards. Language dominance did not impact SLD and OD percentages, but some differences for SLD subtypes emerged. Binary logistic regression analyses showed that repetitions and dysrhythmic phonations are good predictors for correct CWS or CWNS classification, in contrast to OD. A combination of predictors from both languages led to better classification than using predictors from either language alone.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study shows that speech disfluency percentages in bilingual CWNS typically surpass monolingual standards and can be at par with those of CWS. However, through careful consideration of disfluency characteristics, ideally in both languages, an accurate differential diagnosis of stuttering in bilingual children can be achieved.

Beyond Language Scores: How Language Exposure Informs Assessment of Nonword Repetition, Vocabulary and Narrative Macrostructure in Bilingual Turkish/Swedish Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder

As in many other countries, baseline data concerning the linguistic development of bilingual children in Sweden are lacking, and suitable methods for identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilinguals are lacking as well. This study presents reference data from 108 typically developing (TD) Turkish/Swedish-speaking children aged 4;0-8;1, for a range of language tasks developed specifically for the assessment of bilinguals (LITMUS test battery, COST Action IS0804). We report on different types of nonword repetition (NWR) tasks (language-specific and language-independent), receptive and expressive vocabulary (Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks, CLTs), and narrative macrostructure comprehension and production (Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives, MAIN) in Turkish, the children's home language, and in Swedish, the language of schooling and society. Performance was investigated in relation to age, language exposure, type of task, and (for NWR and narratives) vocabulary size. There was a positive development with age for all tasks, but effects of language exposure and vocabulary size differed between tasks. Six bilingual Turkish/Swedish children with DLD were individually compared to the TD children. TD/DLD performance overlapped substantially, particularly for NWR, and more so for the production than the comprehension tasks. Surprisingly, the discriminatory potential was poor for both language-specific and language-independent NWR. DLD case studies underscored the importance of interpreting language scores in relation to exposure history, and the need for an increased emphasis on functional language skills as reported by parents and teachers when assessing and diagnosing DLD in bilinguals.

Project Building Bridges: A Framework for Preparing Highly Qualified Speech-Language Pathologists to Serve Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students With Augmentative and Alternative Communication Needs

PURPOSE

Project Building Bridges was funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs to address the shortage of speech-language pathologists qualified to serve students with complex communication needs who benefit from augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and are culturally and linguistically diverse. The purpose was to train future speech-language pathologists in culturally responsive AAC practices through coursework and fieldwork in AAC integrated into the Master of Science degree in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.

METHOD

Fifty-seven graduate students completed the project. The scholars' curriculum consisted of two AAC courses, both on-campus and externship AAC clinical practicum experiences to provide services to multicultural and linguistically diverse students, a U.S. or international service-learning opportunity, and cumulative portfolio presentations.

RESULTS

Mixed-methods outcome measures consisted of four sets of pre- and postsurveys and qualitative feedback from exit interviews to assess changes in graduate student competencies. Significant differences were demonstrated between scholars' pre- and post-assessments of confidence ratings. Significant differences were also demonstrated in both scholars' and school mentors' pre- and post-assessments of competency ratings. No significant differences were found between evaluations of AAC preparation by Clinical Fellowship (CF) candidates and their CF mentors at 1 year postgraduation.

CONCLUSIONS

Project Building Bridges provides a framework for preparing highly qualified speech-language pathologists to serve culturally and linguistically diverse students who benefit from AAC as evidenced by pre- and postsurvey results. The project can serve as a model for other university programs in the development of preservice preparation programs focusing on culturally and linguistically diverse students with AAC needs.

Diagnostic Accuracy of Grammaticality and Utterance Length in Bilingual Children

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of two measures derived from spontaneous language samples, mean length of utterance in words (MLUw) and percentage of grammatical utterances (PGU), in identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in Spanish-English bilingual children. We examined two approaches: best language and total language.

METHOD

The participants in this study included 74 Spanish-English bilingual children with (n = 36) and without (n = 38) DLD. Language samples were elicited through a story retell and story generation task using Frog wordless picture books in English and Spanish. Stories were transcribed and coded using the Systematic Analysis of Language Samples (Miller & Iglesias, 2020) to extract MLUw and PGU in both languages.

RESULTS

Logistic regression analyses suggested that a model that included PGU, MLUw, and age achieved the best diagnostic accuracy in predicting group membership. Both approaches, best language and total language, had fair diagnostic accuracy.

CONCLUSIONS

In combination, PGU and MLUw seem to be useful diagnostic tools to differentiate bilingual children with and without DLD. Clinical implications and usability are discussed.

Individual variation in bilingual vocabulary in preschoolers with developmental language disorder

BACKGROUND

It is unclear how speech production, selective attention, and phonological working memory are related to first- (L1) and second-language (L2) vocabularies in bilingual preschoolers with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).

AIMS

To study individual variation in vocabularies in DLD bilingual preschoolers by (1) comparing them to typically developing (TD) bilingual, and TD and DLD monolingual peers; (2) differentially predicting L2 vocabulary; and (3) identifying and characterizing bilinguals' L1/L2 vocabulary profiles.

METHODS

We measured the selective attention, working memory, and L1 Turkish/Polish (where applicable) and L1/L2 Dutch speech and vocabulary abilities of 31 DLD bilingual, 37 TD bilingual, and 61 DLD and 54 TD Dutch monolingual three-to-five year-olds.

RESULTS

DLD bilinguals scored lower than TD bilinguals and TD/DLD monolinguals on all measures, except L2 vocabulary, where all bilinguals underperformed all monolinguals. Selective attention predicted Dutch vocabulary across groups. Three bilingual vocabulary profiles emerged: DLD bilinguals were less likely to be L1 dominant, TD/DLD bilinguals with better attention more often had a Balanced high L1/L2 profile, while those with poorer selective attention and L1 speech tended to be L2 dominant.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the roles of L1 speech and selective attention, rather than L2 speech and working memory, in understanding bilingual vocabulary variation among DLD preschoolers.

Sometimes larger, sometimes smaller: Measuring vocabulary in monolingual and bilingual infants and toddlers

Vocabulary size is a crucial early indicator of language development, for both monolingual and bilingual children. Assessing vocabulary in bilingual children is complex because they learn words in two languages, and there remains significant controversy about how to best measure their vocabulary size, especially in relation to monolinguals. This study compared monolingual vocabulary with different metrics of bilingual vocabulary, including combining vocabulary across languages to count either the number of words or the number of concepts lexicalized and assessing vocabulary in a single language. Data were collected from parents of 743 infants and toddlers aged 8-33 months learning French and/or English, using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. The results showed that the nature and magnitude of monolingual-bilingual differences depended on how bilinguals' vocabulary was measured. Compared with monolinguals, bilinguals had larger expressive and receptive word vocabularies, similarly sized receptive concept vocabularies and smaller expressive concept vocabularies. Bilinguals' single-language vocabularies were smaller than monolinguals' vocabularies. The study highlights the need to better understand the role of translation equivalents in bilingual vocabulary development and the potential developmental differences in receptive and expressive vocabularies.

Supporting Culturally Responsive Assessment Practices With Preschoolers: Guidance From Methods in the Jamaican Context

PURPOSE

There is a shortage of available methods to accurately inform the developmental status of children whose cultural and linguistic backgrounds vary from the mainstream. The purpose of this review article was to describe different approaches used to support the accurate characterization of speech, language, and functional communication in children speaking Jamaican Creole and English, an understudied paradigm in the speech pathology research.

METHOD

Approaches used across four previously published studies in the Jamaican Creole Language Project are described. Participants included 3- to 6-year-old Jamaican children (n = 98-262) and adults (n = 15-33). Studies I and II described validation efforts about children's functional communication using the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; speech) and the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS; speech and language). Study III described efforts to accurately characterize difference and disorder in children's expressive grammar using adapted scoring, along with adult models to contextualize child responses. Last, Study IV applied acoustic duration (e.g., whole word) and an adapted scoring protocol to inform variation in speech sound productions in the Jamaican context where a post-Creole continuum exists.

RESULTS

Studies I and II offered promising psychometric evidence about the utility of the ICS and the FOCUS. Study III revealed strong sensitivity and specificity in classifying difference and disorder using adult models. Last, in Study IV, linguistically informed acoustic analyses and an adapted protocol captured variation in speech productions better than a standard approach.

CONCLUSIONS

Applying culturally responsive methods can enhance the accurate characterization of speech, language, and functional communication in Jamaican children. The innovative methods used offer a model approach that could be applied to other linguistic contexts where a mismatch exists between speech-language pathologists and their clientele.

PRESENTATION VIDEO

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23929461.

Combining Languages in Bilingual Input: Using Experimental Evidence to Formulate Bilingual Exposure Strategies

PURPOSE

Traditional approaches to studying bilingual language development through bilingual-monolingual comparisons are deeply flawed. They are also insufficient as the evidence base for informing advice to bilingual parents regarding the optimal bilingual exposure strategy and for supporting the formulation of bilingual intervention approaches. The purpose of this review article is to provide an overview of empirical studies that have queried the question of how different types of dual-language input shape learning and language outcomes in bilingual children.

METHOD

We rely on tightly controlled experimental studies of word learning in Spanish-English bilingual children, where we contrast children's learning in dual-language conditions (defined as distributed exposure and code-switched input) to a single-language condition in a within-subjects design.

RESULTS

Word-learning studies querying the role of distributed exposure indicated that distribution of exposures across Spanish and English reduced children's performance in comparison to English-only exposure. However, this effect was rooted in the abrupt switch from Spanish to English rather than distributed exposure itself. In contrast, an experiment designed to test the role of code-switched context on children's word learning revealed that code-switched context where switches resembled naturalistic code-switching behaviors enhanced learning in Spanish-English bilingual children. Notably, across different studies, children with weaker language skills (developmental language disorder) were no more affected by dual-language input than children with typical language skills.

CONCLUSIONS

Together, experimental studies of word learning indicate that bilingual children can effectively learn from dual-language input but that different ways of combining languages in the input to bilingual children can have distinct consequences for learning. Ultimately, word-learning experiments, beyond answering critical questions regarding bilingual learning, can serve as an effective bridge between laboratory-based work and intervention studies whose goal it is to discover the optimal way of combining languages in the input to bilingual children with communication impairments.

PRESENTATION VIDEO

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23929515.

Understanding the Microstructure and Macrostructure Narrative Skills of Bilingual Adolescents in Relation to Their Language Experience

PURPOSE

Narratives have been a useful tool for evaluating language skills in young bilingual children. This study extends that work to bilingual adolescents by (a) describing their narrative skills and (b) evaluating the role of current language experience on measures of narrative micro- and macrostructure across Spanish and English.

METHOD

Sixty-five Spanish-English bilingual adolescents, ages 10-15 years, were administered the Test of Narrative Language (TNL) in English and Spanish. Language samples were transcribed and coded for elements of narrative microstructure. Parents provided information about participants' current language experience.

RESULTS

Means and standard deviations were reported for microstructure composites, TNL comprehension subtests, and TNL production subtests in Spanish and English. Findings showed differential effects of current English experience on narrative performance across Spanish and English, such that experience significantly explained 12%, 10%, and 20% of the variance in participants' microstructure scores, narrative comprehension, and narrative production in Spanish, respectively. Language experience was unrelated to performance across all English narrative measures.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that continued use of Spanish may be important for bilinguals' maintenance of the home language during adolescence, particularly on narrative tasks that require bilinguals to produce Spanish. However, experience is insufficient to explain the variability in bilinguals' narrative skills across Spanish and English.

Bilingual Vocabulary Assessment: Examining Single-Language, Conceptual, and Total Scoring Approaches

PURPOSE

This study explored approaches for measuring vocabulary among bilingual children with varying levels of proficiency in Spanish and English.

METHOD

One hundred fifteen kindergarten and first-grade Spanish-English-speaking children completed measures of vocabulary and sentence repetition in Spanish and English. Scores were derived from their responses to the vocabulary measure: Spanish-only vocabulary, English-only vocabulary, conceptual vocabulary, and total vocabulary. Best language sentence repetition was also obtained. Using both visualization of data and statistical analysis, we tested for potential associations between children's relative language skills in Spanish and English and the scores they received on each of the vocabulary metrics.

RESULTS

Participants' single-language vocabulary scores were linearly associated with their relative language scores. Higher relative Spanish language skills corresponded with higher Spanish-only vocabulary scores, and higher English language skills corresponded with higher English-only vocabulary scores. A quadratic association between children's relative language and their conceptual vocabulary scores was observed. Children with more balanced skills in Spanish and English received lower scores for conceptual vocabulary. No association between total vocabulary and relative language was observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Results revealed evidence of differential test bias for single-language vocabulary scores and conceptual vocabulary scores. Spanish-only vocabulary underestimated knowledge of participants with higher English proficiency, whereas English-only vocabulary underestimated knowledge of participants with higher Spanish proficiency. Conceptual scoring yielded lower values for participants with relatively balanced proficiency in Spanish and English. There is need for further consideration of score and test functioning across the full continuum of bilinguals with dynamic proficiencies in each of their languages.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23796330.

Neural Correlates of Morphosyntactic Processing in Spanish-English Bilingual Children: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of early bilingual exposure on Spanish-English bilingual children's neural organization of English morphosyntactic structures. This study examines how children's age and language experiences are related to morphosyntactic processing at the neural level.

METHOD

Eighty-one children (ages 6-11 years) completed an auditory sentence judgment task during functional near-infrared spectroscopy neuroimaging. The measure tapped into children's processing of early-acquired (present progressive -ing) and later-acquired (past tense -ed and third-person singular -s) English morphosyntactic structures, the primary language of academic instruction.

RESULTS

We observed effects of syntactic structure and age. Early-acquired morphemic structures elicited activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, while the later-acquired structures elicited additional activations in the left middle temporal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus (STG). Younger children had a more distributed neural response, whereas older children had a more focal neural response. Finally, there was a trending association between children's English language use and left STG activation for later-acquired structures.

CONCLUSION

The findings inform theories of language and brain development by highlighting the mechanisms by which age and language experiences influence bilingual children's neural architecture for morphosyntactic processing.

Partnering With Latino/a Caregivers and Community Stakeholders to Understand Priorities and Needs Prior to Implementing an Early Literacy Program

PURPOSE

Latino/a children disproportionately experience academic vulnerabilities, including in reading. Caregiver-mediated interventions can be leveraged to support the bilingual language development of young Latino/a children to prevent these well-documented disparities in reading. However, in leveraging these programs, it is important to weigh Latino cultural values surrounding education, family connection, and learning alongside the barriers and inequities experienced by Latino families. In response to this need, this study used a community-partnered approach to (a) understand caregivers' needs related to the language and literacy development of their young children and (b) understand perspectives for how best to implement a culturally adapted and culturally responsive caregiver-mediated program.

METHOD

A total of 101 caregivers completed a needs assessment of sociodemographic information, child development and needs, and family needs. Subsequently, nonprofit staff and caregivers completed semistructured interviews or focus groups about the development and implementation of a birth-to-5 program supporting early language development.

RESULTS

Thirty-five percent of families reported having at least one child with delayed language. Furthermore, 60.3% of respondents reported desiring strategies to support their child's early reading. Deductive content analysis revealed that both staff and caregivers desired a birth-to-5, caregiver-mediated program. Staff described family-level characteristics to consider for an early language program, community strengths, specific inequities faced by Latino families, and suggestions about culturally responsive early language and literacy program content and structure. Caregivers described barriers and inequities that they have faced related to their children's learning and development and how a birth-to-5 program could be responsive to their needs and values.

CONCLUSIONS

Staff and caregiver emphasized the resilience of Latino families and their strong values surrounding educational involvement. At the same time, participants also reported barriers and inequities rooted in systemic racism that have prevented families from being involved in certain aspects of the children's education. Together, these results revealed the importance of an early literacy program that is responsive to the structural inequities experienced by families.

Longitudinal Examination of Morphosyntactic Skills in Bilingual Children: Spanish and English Standardized Scores

PURPOSE

This study aimed to examine changes in English and Spanish morphosyntactic standardized scores over time in bilingual children.

METHOD

One hundred bilingual children participated in this longitudinal study. The average age of the children at the beginning of the study was 5;11 (years;months). A subset of the participants was identified as children with developmental language disorder (DLD, n = 43). Children completed behavioral testing in Spanish and English at three time points over a period of 2 years. Growth curve modeling was employed to analyze longitudinal data.

RESULTS

Distinct patterns of Spanish and English language growth were observed. While the average standard score in English increased, the average score in Spanish decreased over time for both groups. Children with DLD showed persistent language difficulties in both Spanish and English over time in comparison to their peers.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study provide evidence of a shift in language proficiency from Spanish to English for bilingual children with and without language disorders. This study also shows that bilingual children with DLD show a protracted but parallel growth in morphosyntactic skills in comparison to children without DLD.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23671464.

Cortical Location of Language Function May Differ between Languages While White Matter Pathways Are Similar in Brain Lesion Patients

The neural representation of language can be identified cortically using navigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and subcortically using the fiber tracking of diffusion tensor imaging. We investigated how cortical locations of language and language-eloquent white matter pathways differ in 40 brain lesion patients speaking various languages. Error rates related to stimulations at single sites in the frontal and parietal lobe differed significantly between Balto-Slavic and Indo-European languages. Error rates related to stimulations at single sites in the temporal lobe differed significantly between bilingual individuals. No differences were found in the white matter language pathway volumes between Balto-Slavic and Indo-European languages nor between bilingual patients. These original and exploratory data indicate that the underlying subcortical structure might be similar across languages, with initially observed differences in the cortical location of language depending on the semantic processing, but these could not be confirmed using detailed statistical analyses pointing at a similar cortical and subcortical network.

Recast Therapy for Treating Syntax in Bilingual Children With Developmental Language Disorder: A Feasibility and Early Efficacy Study Examining the Role of Language of Intervention on Outcomes

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of the delivery of complex syntax recast therapy via telepractice to Spanish-English bilingual children and provide preliminary evidence of the efficacy of this approach.

METHOD

Fifteen bilingual children with developmental language disorders were stratified based on language proficiency and randomized to one of three treatment conditions: Spanish only (n = 5), English only (n = 6), or Spanish + English (n = 4). Using a within-subject design, we hypothesized that we could document treatment efficacy based on change in the treated structure in the absence of change in an untreated comparison structure. All 15 children completed ~16 hr of treatment via telepractice and participated in pre- and posttesting of their production of conditional adverbs (treated structure) and subject relative clauses (untreated structure) carried out by a masked assessor.

RESULTS

Analyses included all participants. Treatment fidelity was high, and participant attendance was remarkable, indicating feasibility. Regarding efficacy, recast therapy led to group-level gains on treated syntactic structures that exceeded those observed for the untreated comparison structure. For the 11 children who received therapy in only one language, approximately equal gains were observed in both the treated and untreated languages for conditional adverbials.

CONCLUSIONS

Preliminary evidence suggests that for highly overlapping structures like conditional adverbials, recast therapy is effective and leads to change in both of the child's languages. Larger studies are required to understand how language of administration and proficiency may affect outcomes.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23739996.

Assessment of Developmental Language Disorder in Multilingual Children: Results from an International Survey

INTRODUCTION

The Multilingual-Multicultural Affairs Committee of the International Association of Communication Disorders (IALP) conducted a survey of diagnostic criteria for developmental language disorder (DLD) in multilingual children to discover how clinicians apply terminology and diagnostic criteria to multilingual children in different parts of the world.

METHODS

An international web survey was used to survey 354 participants from 44 countries about their assessment practices, and clinical opinions about assessing multilingual children for DLD.

RESULTS

The findings show that most clinicians felt confident in assessing multilingual children, and they applied the DLD terminology and inclusionary criteria to multilingual children with difficulty learning language. Clinicians used different procedures to assess heritage and societal languages. Barriers to access to services included a lack of knowledge by parents and referral sources about services available and typical multilingual development, with additional reasons differing by geographical region.

DISCUSSION

Speech pathologists across the globe have many similarities in the way that they assess multilingual children. Differences may be attributed to clinical experience, professional education, the clinician's role, the system they work in, and the clinician's own language skills. This paper advances knowledge of current clinical practices, which can be used to evaluate frameworks in international and national contexts, with implications for policy and practice to improve access to clinical services.

Predictors of Reading Development Among School-Age Bilingual Children With Developmental Language Disorder: A Scoping Review

PURPOSE

Systematic reviews of bilingual children's reading development are very limited, and none of which solely focus on predictors of reading difficulties among those with developmental language disorder (DLD). The present scoping review fills an important need by analyzing the recent research literature on the reading outcomes of bilingual children with DLD. Specifically, this study aims to identify predictors of reading difficulties among bilingual children with DLD to improve early identification.

METHOD

The search parameters used in this scoping review included peer-reviewed journal articles written in English from 2000 to 2022 in order to synthesize the most recent empirical work, a focus on early childhood through early adolescent (pre-K to eighth grade) bilinguals with DLD, and research designs that included case study, descriptive, cross-sectional, quasi-experimental, longitudinal, and qualitative methods.

RESULTS

The present review yielded nine articles, which all examined the predictive validity of either a measure or task with the ultimate goal of improving early identification of reading difficulties. Significant predictors of reading difficulties, such as rapid naming and blending in first language (L1), were found to aid in identifying bilingual children who have DLD.

CONCLUSIONS

To conclude, this review demonstrates that this is a highly under-researched topic. To have ended up including only nine articles that fit the criteria of our search reveals a large gap in the research and a limitation of this review.

Language outcomes at 4 years of linguistically diverse children born very preterm: an Australian retrospective single-centre study

BACKGROUND

Very preterm children are at increased risk of language delays. Concerns have been raised about the utility of standardised English language tools to diagnose language delay in linguistically diverse children. Our study investigated the incidence of language delay at 4 years in linguistically diverse very preterm children.

METHODS

Very preterm children born in South Western Sydney, Australia, between 2012 and 2016, were assessed with the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-2 (CELF-P2) tool at 4 years of age. We sought to determine the incidence of language delay in this cohort using language scores from the CELF-P2 assessment tool, and explore potential predictors associated with language delay.

RESULTS

One hundred and sixty very preterm children attended the 4-year assessment out of the included 270 long-term survivors. At 4 years, 76 (52%) very preterm children had language delay diagnosed using the CELF-P2 assessment tool. Children who preferred a language other than English had lower average core language scores on the CELF-P2 assessment tool (75.1±14.4) compared with children that preferred English (86.5±17.9); p=0.002. Very preterm children growing up in households that preferenced a language other than English and those who were born from multiple births had higher odds of language delay at 4 years (AOR 10.30 (95% CI 2.82 to 38.28); p<0.001 and AOR 2.93 (95% CI 1.20 to 7.14); p=0.018, respectively). Assessing these children using an English language tool may have affected language scores at 4 years.

CONCLUSIONS

In this metropolitan setting, very preterm children from linguistically diverse backgrounds were found to be vulnerable to language delays at 4 years. Further large-scale studies evaluating the language outcomes of linguistically diverse preterm children with more culturally appropriate tools are warranted. We question the utility of standardised English language tools to assess language outcomes of linguistically diverse populations.

Identification of stuttering in bilingual Lebanese children across two presentation modes

The goals of this study were to investigate whether Lebanese speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are accurate at identifying stuttering in bilingual children, to examine whether the use of video-recordings instead of audio-recordings allows for better analyses, and to explore factors that may affect the SLPs' judgments. In phase 1, 32 SLPs listened to narrative samples in Lebanese Arabic of 6 children who do not stutter (CWNS) and 2 who stutter (CWS). They were instructed to label each child as stuttering or not, and to explain what motivated their decisions. Afterwards, they were asked to provide background information by means of a questionnaire. In phase 2, they were asked to judge the same speech samples on the basis of video-recordings, and to explain for each child which speech characteristics they relied on to make their decisions. The results showed that misidentification happens frequently, is significantly more likely to happen with CWNS than with CWS, but also varies within these categories. Moreover, the use of video-recordings does not provide more reliable analyses of speech disfluencies, and speech samples' characteristics and bilingual profile rather than SLPs' characteristics seem to influence the judgments. Qualitative analyses indicate that, in the current study, misidentification may be driven by neglecting or misinterpreting physical concomitants. In general, the findings indicate that identifying and analyzing speech fluency behaviors remain a challenging perceptual task, which underlies the need for developing consistent methods for training students and clinicians in identifying stuttering, especially in a bilingual context.

Characterizing Communicative Participation in Multilingual Jamaican Preschoolers

PURPOSE

This study characterized communicative participation and related aspects of functional communication for Jamaican Creole (JC)-English-speaking preschoolers with and without functionally defined speech sound disorders (fSSDs). This study included parent reports and direct assessment measures from an existing corpus of baseline data collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHOD

The communicative participation of typically developing (TD; n = 226) bilingual JC-English-speaking preschoolers and those with fSSDs (n = 39) was documented using the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS). Functional speech intelligibility was recorded using the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) in English and JC (ICS-JC). Objective measures of speech production were collected through direct child assessment in both languages and then transcribed and calculated for percent of consonants (PCC), vowels (PVC), and phonemes correct (PPC). Within-group relationships were explored using association testing, and differences between groups were explored through multivariate analyses.

RESULTS

FOCUS scores and ICS and ICS-JC scores were found to be minimally to moderately related for Jamaican preschoolers in the TD group (r = .28-.34, p < .002) and strongly related in the fSSD group (r = .56-.60, p < .002). No relations were observed between the FOCUS scores and PCC/PVC/PPC in either language. There was a statistically significant difference between all FOCUS scores for Jamaican preschoolers in the TD and fSSD groups (p ≤ .002).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide additional evidence for using the FOCUS beyond documenting change in communicative participation to support clinical decision-making in planning and developing speech-language interventions. This study also documents an important characterization of JC-English-speaking children with and without fSSDs, offering data on children's abilities that can be used in future comparisons of communicative participation and speech functioning observed during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Language intervention in bilingual children with developmental language disorder: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Although there is a growing body of literature on cognitive and language processing in bilingual children with developmental language disorder (DLD), there is a major gap in the evidence for language intervention. Critically, speech-language therapists are often required to make clinical decisions for language intervention on specific domains, such as phonology, vocabulary, morphosyntax and literacy.

AIMS

To examine evidence for language intervention and cross-language transfer effects in bilingual children with DLD. Specifically, the study aimed to review intervention evidence targeting non-linguistic cognitive skills and six areas of language: phonology, vocabulary, morphosyntax, pragmatics, narrative skills and literacy.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

We carried out searches in five electronic databases: CINAHL, Scopus, Psychinfo, Proquest and Sciencedirect. Data from selected papers were extracted and organized into the three following categories: study information, participant information and intervention information. Critical appraisal for selected papers was conducted using a quality assessment tool (QAT).

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

We included 14 papers in the review. The majority indicated evidence for vocabulary intervention. There was limited evidence for intervention targeting phonology or morphosyntax. Cross-language generalization effects were evident for vocabulary, but in some instances also reported for morphosyntax and literacy.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

The present review indicates that there is a significant gap in the literature regarding language intervention for several key language areas such as morphosyntax, narrative skills and literacy. There are only limited data for the effects of cross-language generalization indicating that more research is needed in this area specifically for skills beyond vocabulary.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on the subject Previous studies have examined the effects of bi- and monolingual intervention in bilingual children with DLD. Although the results indicated superior effects for bilingual compared with monolingual intervention, language intervention evidence in specific language domains (e.g., vocabulary, literacy) has not been investigated. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This study will add intervention evidence specific to language domains such as phonology, vocabulary, morphosyntax, pragmatics, narrative skills and literacy. Additionally, we have synthesized intervention evidence on non-linguistic cognition given that these skills are often impaired in bilingual children with DLD. The review has also demonstrated evidence for the effects of cross-language transfer beyond vocabulary skills, especially when the intervention was provided in the home language. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Although there was a lack of intervention evidence in language domains such as pragmatics, the results indicated some evidence for intervention targeting vocabulary. However, positive effects of cross-language generalization were not constrained to vocabulary but were also reported for intervention targeting mean length of utterance and literacy in the home language. This result indicates an interactive nature of the two languages, as well as provides further evidence for supporting home language(s) in intervention. Finally, intervention targeting non-linguistic cognition may yield additional cross-domain generalization to language skills specifically for bilingual children with DLD.

A new dynamic word learning task to diagnose language disorder in French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children

Tools to effectively assess the language performance of bilingual children are lacking. Static tests assessing vocabulary knowledge (e.g., naming task) are not appropriate for testing bilingual children due to different types of bias. Alternative methods have been developed to diagnose bilingual children, including measuring language learning (e.g., word learning) through dynamic assessment. Research conducted with English-speaking children indicates that DA of word learning is effective in diagnosing language disorders in bilingual children. In this study, we examine whether a dynamic word learning task, using shared-storybook reading, can differentiate French-speaking (monolingual and bilingual) children with developmental language disorder (DLD) from those with typical development (TD). Sixty children (4-8 years), 43 with TD and 17 with DLD, participated: 30 were monolinguals and 25 were bilinguals. The dynamic word-learning task used a shared-storybook reading context. The children had to learn four non-words, paired with novel objects, as well as their semantic characteristics (a category and a definition) during the reading of a story. Post-tests assessed the recall of the phonological form and the semantic features of the objects. Phonological and semantic prompts were given if the child was unable to name or describe the objects. Results indicated that children with DLD performed less well than those with TD on phonological recall, leading to fair sensitivity and good specificity at delayed post-test for young children (4-6 years). Semantic production did not differentiate the two groups: all children performed well at this task. In sum, children with DLD have more difficulties encoding the phonological form of the word. Our findings suggest that a dynamic word learning task using shared-storybook reading is a promising approach for diagnosing lexical difficulties in young French-speaking, monolingual and bilingual, children.

Developmental Language Disorder Is Associated With Slower Processing Across Domains: A Meta-Analysis of Time-Based Tasks

PURPOSE

Individuals with developmental language disorder (DLD) often exhibit slower processing on time-based tasks in comparison with age-matched peers. Processing speed has been linked to various linguistic skills and might serve as a global indicator of individual differences in language abilities. Despite an extensive literature on processing speed in DLD, it remains unclear whether slower processing is domain general or restricted to linguistic and/or auditory tasks.

METHOD

This meta-analysis used robust variance estimation to compare response/reaction times (RTs) of DLD and age-matched groups (N = 812 DLD, 870 neurotypical; M _age [DLD] = 8.9 years, range: 4.3-22.7 years). Moderators included task (simple RT, choice RT, naming, congruent/baseline conditions of interference control tasks), stimulus type (linguistic/nonlinguistic), stimulus modality (auditory/nonauditory), and response modality (verbal/nonverbal). Age and publication year were covariates.

RESULTS

The overall effect based on 46 studies and 144 estimates indicated longer mean RTs in DLD groups (g = .47, p < .001, 95% CI [.38, .55]). Moderator analyses indicated larger effects when tasks required verbal as opposed to nonverbal responses. No other moderators approached significance. All subgroup analyses were significant, indicating longer mean RTs in DLD groups across tasks, stimulus types, stimulus modalities, and response modalities.

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals with DLD exhibit longer RTs across verbal and nonverbal tasks, which may contribute to observed difficulties in language, motor skills, and executive functioning. Simple processing speed measures should be included in screening for language delays but may not be suitable for differential diagnosis, given that slower processing may occur across multiple disorders.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21809355.

Macroestructura y microestructura narrativa en población infantil bilingüe con TDL: una revisión sistemática

La identificación de niños bilingües con Trastorno del Desarrollo del Lenguaje (TDL) es compleja, y la evaluación de la narración puede ser particularmente valiosa en este contexto. Por ello, el objetivo de este estudio es contribuir a sistematizar y difundir el creciente cuerpo de literatura que investiga las habilidades narrativas de población infantil bilingüe con TDL, a través de una revisión sistemática guiada por las siguientes preguntas: ¿Qué elementos a nivel de macroestructura y microestructura narrativa se han estudiado en la población infantil bilingüe con TDL? ¿Qué aspectos de la macroestructura y microestructura narrativa diferencian a los niños bilingües con TDL de los bilingües con desarrollo típico? ¿Qué aspectos de la macroestructura y microestructura narrativa diferencian a los bilingües con TDL de los monolingües con TDL? Se seleccionaron 25 artículos desde las bases de datos WoS y Scopus. En general, los resultados apuntan a un menor desempeño en la población tanto bilingüe como monolingüe con TDL en varias medidas de ambos niveles, aunque se considera que el núcleo del problema es la microestructura. Sin embargo, existen algunos resultados contradictorios, por lo que se incentiva continuar la investigación de características narrativas específicas en ambas lenguas con el propósito de encontrar marcadores clínicos que contribuyan a una mayor eficiencia en la evaluación de niños bilingües. Además, se sugiere que la evaluación narrativa se combine con otras medidas para aumentar la precisión diagnóstica de TDL.

Can Bilingual Children Self-Report Their Bilingual Experience and Proficiency? The Houston Questionnaire

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to develop a child self-report questionnaire measuring bilingual experience and self-perceptions of Spanish and English proficiency and establish preliminary evidence of validity and reliability for the questionnaire.

METHOD

Participants included 113 Spanish-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorders ranging in age from 4 to 8 years. All children completed the questionnaire in Spanish and participated in behavioral assessment of their language skills in both Spanish and English.

RESULTS

Using confirmatory factor analysis, a model with three correlated factors (self-perception of proficiency in Spanish, self-perception of proficiency in English, and bilingual experience) emerged with the best global fit, reasonableness, consistency with theory, and model parsimony, suggesting that the questionnaire has good internal reliability. The scaled results of the questionnaires significantly correlated with behavioral measures of both Spanish and English, supporting the convergent validity of the measure.

CONCLUSIONS

The Houston Questionnaire is an assessment tool for the assessment of bilingual experience and self-perception of proficiency in Spanish and English bilingual children between the ages of 4 and 8 years. The results provide foundational evidence supporting the reliability and convergent validity of this tool.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21158887.

Sentence Repetition Performance Differences in Bilingual and Monolingual Children

PURPOSE

This study examined language group differences in English syntactic knowledge based on performance on a sentence repetition task.

METHOD

Fourth and sixth grade students who were monolinguals (n = 30), early bilinguals (i.e., simultaneous; n = 27), or late bilinguals (i.e., sequential; n = 29) completed an English sentence repetition task. Their responses were analyzed as a function of sentence length (short vs. long), sentence type (active vs. passive), phrase type (noun, verb, and prepositional), and word type (content vs. function).

RESULTS

Overall, early bilinguals' performance did not differ significantly from that of the monolinguals. However, these bilinguals recalled significantly more content words than function words on the long sentences. At each level of analysis, the late bilinguals' performance was less accurate than the other groups. The magnitude of these group differences was larger for passive sentences and prepositional phrases.

CONCLUSION

Findings highlight areas of syntactic development that differ among groups and should be targeted for additional instruction with English language learners in elementary school.

Contributions of bilingual home environment and language proficiency on children's Spanish-English reading outcomes

This study examines the influence of language environment on language and reading skills and the cross-linguistic contributions to reading outcomes in 132 Spanish-English bilingual children ages 7-12 (52% female; 98% Hispanic). We present three major findings: children's language knowledge is separable into general (e.g., phonological awareness) and language-specific (e.g., meaning, grammar) skills; regular Spanish use positively relates to children's Spanish language and reading skills and does not limit English skills; and Spanish reading comprehension is positively associated with English reading comprehension. The model explains a significant percentage of the variance in English (R²  = .89) and Spanish (R²  = .87) reading comprehension outcomes. Findings shed light on the interdependence of Spanish and English as they relate to bilingual reading acquisition.

The Reliability of Short Conversational Language Sample Measures in Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

PURPOSE

Language sample analysis (LSA) represents an ecologically valid method for diagnosing, identifying goals, and measuring progress in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). LSA is, however, time consuming. The purpose of this study was to determine the length of sample needed to obtain reliable LSA measures for children in kindergarten and first grade with typical language (TL) and DLD using automated analyses from the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts software.

METHOD

Play-based conversational language samples collected on kindergarten to first-grade children with TL (n = 21) and DLD (n = 21) from a community-based sample were analyzed. Eight LSA measures were calculated from 1-, 3-, 5-, 7-, and 10-min sample cuts and compared to 20-min samples for reliability.

RESULTS

Reliability estimates were similar for the TL and DLD groups except for errors and omissions, which showed overall higher levels of reliability in the DLD group and reached acceptable levels at 3 min. Percent grammatical utterances were reliable at 7 min in the DLD group and not reliable in shorter samples in the TL group. The subordination index was reliable at 10 min for both groups. Number of different words reached acceptable reliability at the 3-min length for the DLD group and at the 10-min length for the TL group. Utterances and words per minute were reliable at 3 min and mean length of utterance at 7 min in both groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Speech-language pathologists can obtain reliable LSA measures from shorter, 7-min conversational language samples from kindergarten to first-grade children with DLD. Shorter language samples may encourage increased use of LSA.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19529287.

Tell or Retell? The Role of Task and Language in Spanish-English Narrative Microstructure Performance

PURPOSE

This study examined performance of dual language learners (DLLs) on Spanish- and English-language narrative story retells and unique tells. Transcription and analysis focused on comparisons of common microstructural language sample measures in Spanish and English across tasks. Each language sample measure was evaluated for its possible convergence with norm-referenced standardized assessments for DLL children.

METHOD

Spanish-English DLLs (N = 133) enrolled in English-only kindergarten or first-grade classrooms completed two-language sample tasks (one in each language), which were transcribed and analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (Miller & Iglesias, 2017) for measures of syntactic complexity (mean length of utterance [MLU] in words), lexical diversity (number of different words [NDW]), and grammaticality (percent grammatical utterances [PGU]). Students also completed a norm-referenced sentence repetition task (Peña et al., 2014) and expressive vocabulary assessment (Martin, 2013).

RESULTS

Comparison of story retells and unique stories revealed similar performance on MLU, NDW, and PGU across elicitation techniques, with one exception: NDW in Spanish was higher in the story retell condition. Predictive models revealed several differences in the relations between the microstructure measures and norm-referenced language measures by elicitation technique, although neither context demonstrated a consistent advantage across all metrics.

CONCLUSIONS

Measures derived from story retells and unique tells offer practical findings for speech-language pathologists and other educators to use in assessment of early grade DLLs. This work increases knowledge of procedural differences across narrative assessments and their influence on language variables, supporting school-based speech-language pathologists in making assessment decisions for DLLs on their caseload.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19191278.

Can Dynamic Assessment Identify Language Disorder in Multilingual Children? Clinical Applications From a Systematic Review

PURPOSE

Multilingual children are disproportionately represented on speech pathology caseloads, in part due to the limited ability of traditional language assessments to accurately capture multilingual children's language abilities. This systematic review evaluates the evidence for identification of language disorder in multilingual children using dynamic assessment and considers clinical applications of the evidence.

METHOD

A systematic search of the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Education Resources Information Centre, Education Source, Google Scholar, Linguistics, Medline, and PsycINFO databases produced 10 articles that met the inclusion criteria: between-groups comparison studies that used dynamic assessment to identify language disorder in children under 12 years old that spoke a different language at home to the majority society language. Articles were critically appraised using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) protocol.

RESULTS

Nine of the 10 studies reported that their dynamic assessment identified language disorder in multilingual children. However, small sample sizes, limited language pairs, variability in the reference standard, and design deficiencies resulted in poor ratings for all studies on QUADAS-2.

CONCLUSIONS

The studies in this review reflected an emergent area of research. Preliminary guidelines for clinical application indicate that dynamic assessment may be a suitable and time-efficient complementary method of diagnosis of language disorder in multilingual children. Further recommendations about age of use, language of instruction, and relevant scores are included.

Assessing Language Skills in Bilingual Children: Current Trends in Research and Practice

A continuously challenging issue in the field of speech–language pathology is accurately identifying and diagnosing a language disorder in school-aged (pre-kindergarten through 5th grade) bilingual children, as bilingual children are disproportionately under- and overidentified with a language disorder. The current review focuses on the assessment of bilingual children in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, aimed to inform teachers, pediatricians, parents, and other relevant professionals of issues surrounding assessment of these dual-language learners. We examine the barriers to assessing bilingual children for language disorders, such as the lack of availability of bilingual tests, underinformative current best practice guidelines, lack of speech–language pathologist (SLP) training/knowledge of bilingualism, and use of interpreters. We discuss the necessary considerations when SLPs use norm-referenced tests with bilingual children, such as norming samples, accurate identification of a language disorder, reliability and validity, test administration, and potential solutions to using otherwise poorly suited norm-referenced tests. We also consider research on several alternative measures to norm-referenced assessments, including dynamic assessment, nonword repetition, language sampling, nonlinguistic cognition, and parent report. We conclude by synthesizing the information in this review to offer six principles of best practices for bilingual assessment.

Extending functional communication training to multiple language contexts in bilingual learners with challenging behavior

Little research has highlighted how evidence-based practices (e.g., functional communication training [FCT]) might be adapted for bilingual learners with disabilities. In the current study, we served 2 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and challenging behavior whose parents primarily spoke Spanish at home, and whose teachers primarily spoke English at school. Following traditional FCT (i.e., 1 language only), we systematically replicated the findings of Neely, Graber et al. (2020) by demonstrating that mands in the untrained language (i.e., English) did not emerge when trained mands (i.e., Spanish) contacted extinction in alternative-language contexts. Simultaneously, challenging behavior consistently resurged. After children received explicit training with both languages and were taught to change the language of request when initial attempts were unsuccessful (i.e., "repair the message" training), these same children successfully obtained high rates of reinforcement in both language contexts, and challenging behavior rarely occurred.

Using Nonword Repetition to Identify Language Impairment in Bilingual Children: A Meta-Analysis of Diagnostic Accuracy

Purpose Nonword repetition has been endorsed as a less biased method of assessment for children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, but there are currently no systematic reviews or meta-analyses on its use with bilingual children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of nonword repetition in the identification of language impairment (LI) in bilingual children. Method Using a key word search of peer-reviewed literature from several large electronic databases, as well as ancestral and forward searches, 13 studies were identified that met the eligibility criteria. Studies were evaluated on the basis of quality of evidence, design characteristics, and reported diagnostic accuracy. A meta-regression analysis, based on study results, was conducted to identify task characteristics that may be associated with better classification accuracy. Results Diagnostic accuracy across studies ranged from poor to good. Bilingual children with LI performed with more difficulty on nonword repetition tasks than those with typical language. Quasi-universal tasks, which account for the phonotactic constraints of multiple languages, exhibited better diagnostic accuracy and resulted in less misidentification of children with typical language than language-specific tasks. Conclusions Evidence suggests that nonword repetition may be a useful tool in the assessment and screening of LI in bilingual children, though it should be used in conjunction with other measures. Quasi-universal tasks demonstrate the potential to further reduce assessment bias, but extant research is limited.

Language acquisition of early sequentially bilingual children is moderated by short-term memory for order in developmental language disorder: Findings from the HelSLI study

BACKGROUND

The role of domain-general short-term memory (STM) in language development remains controversial. A previous finding from the HelSLI study on children with developmental language disorder (DLD) suggested that not only verbal but also non-verbal STM for temporal order is related to language acquisition in monolingual children with DLD.

AIMS

To investigate if a similar relationship could be replicated in a sample of sequentially bilingual children with DLD. In addition to the effect of age, the effect of cumulative second language (L2) exposure was studied.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Sixty-one 4-6-year-old bilingual children with DLD and 63 typically developing (TD) bilingual children participated in a cross-sectional study conducted in their L2. Children completed novel game-like tests of visual and auditory non-verbal serial STM, as well as tests of cognitive functioning and language. Interactions of STM for order with age and exposure to L2 (Finnish) were explored as explanatory variables.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

First, the improvement of non-verbal serial STM with age was faster in sequentially bilingual TD children than in bilingual children with DLD. A similar effect was observed for L2 exposure. However, when both age and exposure were considered simultaneously, only age was related to the differential growth of non-verbal STM for order in the groups. Second, only in children with DLD was better non-verbal serial STM capacity related to an improvement in language scores with age and exposure.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

The results suggest that, as previously found in Finnish monolingual children, domain-general serial STM processing is also compromised in bilingual children with DLD. Further, similar to the monolingual findings, better non-verbal serial STM was associated with greater language improvement with age and exposure, but only in children with DLD, in the age range studied here. Thus, in clinical settings, assessing non-verbal serial STM of bilingual children could improve the detection of DLD and understanding of its non-linguistic symptoms.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on the subject Both phonological and non-verbal STM have been associated with DLD in monolingual and sequentially bilingual children. Monolingual children with DLD have also shown slower non-verbal serial STM development than TD children. What this study adds to existing knowledge Sequentially bilingual TD children's non-verbal serial STM improves more between ages 4 and 7 years than that of their peers with DLD, replicating a finding for monolingual children with DLD. Better non-verbal serial STM was especially associated with early receptive language development in sequentially bilingual children with DLD. L2 exposure showed largely comparable effects with age. These results support the hypothesis that a domain-general serial STM deficit is linked to DLD. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Non-verbal assessment of STM for serial order in sequentially bilingual children with DLD could benefit the development of better tailored therapeutic interventions.