Independent effects of bilingualism and socioeconomic status on language ability and executive functioning

Cross-Sectional Study on the Effect of Bilingualism, Age, Gender, and Family Income on Executive Function Development in a Sample of Lebanese School-Aged Children

This study investigates executive functions (EFs) and selected developmental factors in 120 children aged 6-11 years. By examining inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, the research evaluates the potential influences of age, gender, bilingualism, and family income on these EF skills. Tests adapted to Lebanese Arabic were used to assess EFs. Results indicate a linear development of inhibition, working memory, and flexibility with age. Gender differences were observed, affecting verbal and visuospatial working memory as well as flexibility. Bilingualism positively impacts EFs, with early bilinguals outperforming late bilinguals. Family income, however, shows no significant effect on EFs.

The Effects of Language Background and Parental Education on Measures of Cognitive Ability: An Analysis of the WPPSI-IV Cognitive Profiles of Monolingual, Simultaneous Bilingual, and Sequential Bilingual German Children Aged 4 to 7 Years

BACKGROUND

The present study investigated the possible effects of language background (monolinguals, simultaneous bilinguals, and sequential bilinguals) and parental education (no/low, medium, high, and highest parental education) on measures of cognitive ability provided by the Wechsler Primary and Preschool Scale-Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV).

METHODS

Statistical analyses were based on a sample of 290 children (130 females, 160 males). Three multivariate variance analyses were conducted to identify possible effects. In cases of statistically significant main effects, post hoc analyses were additionally performed to identify group differences.

RESULTS

The results indicated that simultaneous bilinguals performed more similarly to monolinguals than sequential bilinguals. On average, sequential bilinguals achieved significantly lower scores on the Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI), the Vocabulary Acquisition Index (VAI), and the associated subtests than monolinguals and simultaneous bilinguals. Significantly lower average scores on VAI and the associated subtests were found for simultaneous bilinguals compared to monolinguals. Children with parents having no, a lower, or a medium educational level achieved significantly lower scores on VCI, VAI, and the FSIQ than children with parents having a high or highest educational level on average.

CONCLUSIONS

The present findings suggest that the WPPSI-IV represents a suitable and reliable test battery for the assessment of cognitive skills in children with different language backgrounds and parental educational levels.

Is there a bilingual advantage in auditory attention among children? A systematic review and meta-analysis of standardized auditory attention tests

A wealth of research has investigated the associations between bilingualism and cognition, especially in regards to executive function. Some developmental studies reveal different cognitive profiles between monolinguals and bilinguals in visual or audio-visual attention tasks, which might stem from their attention allocation differences. Yet, whether such distinction exists in the auditory domain alone is unknown. In this study, we compared differences in auditory attention, measured by standardized tests, between monolingual and bilingual children. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in three electronic databases: OVID Medline, OVID PsycInfo, and EBSCO CINAHL. Twenty studies using standardized tests to assess auditory attention in monolingual and bilingual participants aged less than 18 years were identified. We assessed the quality of these studies using a scoring tool for evaluating primary research. For statistical analysis, we pooled the effect size in a random-effects meta-analytic model, where between-study heterogeneity was quantified using the I2 statistic. No substantial publication bias was observed based on the funnel plot. Further, meta-regression modelling suggests that test measure (accuracy vs. response times) significantly affected the studies' effect sizes whereas other factors (e.g., participant age, stimulus type) did not. Specifically, studies reporting accuracy observed marginally greater accuracy in bilinguals (g = 0.10), whereas those reporting response times indicated faster latency in monolinguals (g = -0.34). There was little difference between monolingual and bilingual children's performance on standardized auditory attention tests. We also found that studies tend to include a wide variety of bilingual children but report limited language background information of the participants. This, unfortunately, limits the potential theoretical contributions of the reviewed studies. Recommendations to improve the quality of future research are discussed.

Interplay of socioeconomic status, cognition, and school performance in the ABCD sample

Coming from a disadvantaged background can have negative impact on an individual's educational trajectory. Some people however seem unaffected and cope well with the demands and challenges posed by school education, despite growing up in adverse conditions, a phenomenon termed academic resilience. While it is uncertain which underlying factors make some people more likely to circumvent unfavorable odds than others, both socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive ability have robustly been linked to school performance. The objective of the present work is to investigate if individual cognitive abilities and SES interact in their effect on grades. For this purpose, we analyzed SES, cognitive, and school performance data from 5001 participants from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Ordinal logistic regression models suggest similar patterns of associations between three SES measures (parental education, income-to-needs ratio, and neighborhood deprivation) and grades at two timepoints, with no evidence for interaction effects between SES and time. Parental education and income-to-needs ratio were associated with grades at both timepoints, irrespective of whether cognitive abilities were modeled or not. Neighborhood deprivation, in contrast, was only a statistically significant predictor of reported grades when cognitive abilities were not factored in. Cognitive abilities interacted with parental education level, meaning that they could be a safeguard against effects of SES on school performance.

The Effect of Background Noise, Bilingualism, Socioeconomic Status, and Cognitive Functioning on Primary School Children's Narrative Listening Comprehension

PURPOSE

This study focuses on 7- to 9-year-old children attending primary school in Swedish areas of low socioeconomic status, where most children's school language is their second language. The aim was to better understand what factors influence these children's narrative listening comprehension both in an ideal listening condition (in quiet) and for the primary school classroom, a typical listening condition (with multitalker babble noise).

METHOD

A total of 86 typically developing 7- to 9-year-olds performed a narrative listening comprehension test (Lyssna, Förstå och Minnas [LFM]; English translation: Listen, Comprehend, and Remember) in two listening conditions: quiet and multitalker babble noise. They also performed the crosslinguistic nonword repetition test and a digit span backwards (DSB) test. A predictive statistical model including these factors, the children's degree of school language exposure, parental education level, and age was derived.

RESULTS

Listening condition had the strongest predictive value for LFM performance, followed by school language exposure and nonword repetition accuracy. Parental education level was also a significant predictor. There was a significant three-way interaction effect between listening condition, age, and DSB performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Multitalker babble noise has a negative effect on children's narrative listening comprehension. The effect of multitalker babble noise could be explained by age differences in the ability to allocate working memory capacity during the narrative listening comprehension task, suggesting that younger children may be more vulnerable for missing information when listening in background noise than their older peers.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25209248.

Exploring audiovisual speech perception in monolingual and bilingual children in Uzbekistan

This study aimed to investigate the development of audiovisual speech perception in monolingual Uzbek-speaking and bilingual Uzbek-Russian-speaking children, focusing on the impact of language experience on audiovisual speech perception and the role of visual phonetic (i.e., mouth movements corresponding to phonetic/lexical information) and temporal (i.e., timing of speech signals) cues. A total of 321 children aged 4 to 10 years in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, discriminated /ba/ and /da/ syllables across three conditions: auditory-only, audiovisual phonetic (i.e., sound accompanied by mouth movements), and audiovisual temporal (i.e., sound onset/offset accompanied by mouth opening/closing). Effects of modality (audiovisual phonetic, audiovisual temporal, or audio-only cues), age, group (monolingual or bilingual), and their interactions were tested using a Bayesian regression model. Overall, older participants performed better than younger participants. Participants performed better in the audiovisual phonetic modality compared with the auditory modality. However, no significant difference between monolingual and bilingual children was observed across all modalities. This finding stands in contrast to earlier studies. We attribute the contrasting findings of our study and the existing literature to the cross-linguistic similarity of the language pairs involved. When the languages spoken by bilinguals exhibit substantial linguistic similarity, there may be an increased necessity to disambiguate speech signals, leading to a greater reliance on audiovisual cues. The limited phonological similarity between Uzbek and Russian might have minimized bilinguals' need to rely on visual speech cues, contributing to the lack of group differences in our study.

Executive function skills account for a bilingual advantage in English novel word learning among low-income preschoolers

The current study compared economically disadvantaged bilingual and monolingual preschoolers' performance on an English novel word learning task and examined whether children's executive function (EF) skills account for differences in novel word learning performance across groups. In total, 39 English monolinguals and 35 Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers from low-income homes completed a battery of EF measures and the Quick Interactive Language Screener to gauge English novel word learning ability. Within a poverty context, bilingual preschoolers performed significantly better on measures of English novel word learning as compared with their monolingual peers. This bilingual advantage in novel word learning ability was mediated by short-term memory, but not inhibition or attention shifting, which indicates that gains in short-term memory may facilitate word learning in English for bilingual preschoolers from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. These findings have important practical implications for interventions designed to promote English vocabulary growth for low-income bilingual children.

Genetic bases of language control in bilinguals: Evidence from an EEG study

Previous studies have debated whether the ability for bilinguals to mentally control their languages is a consequence of their experiences switching between languages or whether it is a specific, yet highly-adaptive, cognitive ability. The current study investigates how variations in the language-related gene FOXP2 and executive function-related genes COMT, BDNF, and Kibra/WWC1 affect bilingual language control during two phases of speech production, namely the language schema phase (i.e., the selection of one language or another) and lexical response phase (i.e., utterance of the target). Chinese-English bilinguals (N = 119) participated in a picture-naming task involving cued language switches. Statistical analyses showed that both genes significantly influenced language control on neural coding and behavioral performance. Specifically, FOXP2 rs1456031 showed a wide-ranging effect on language control, including RTs, F(2, 113) = 4.00, FDR p = .036, and neural coding across three-time phases (N2a: F(2, 113) = 4.96, FDR p = .014; N2b: F(2, 113) = 4.30, FDR p = .028, LPC: F(2, 113) = 2.82, FDR p = .060), while the COMT rs4818 (ts >2.69, FDR ps < .05), BDNF rs6265 (Fs >5.31, FDR ps < .05), and Kibra/WWC1 rs17070145 (ts > -3.29, FDR ps < .05) polymorphisms influenced two-time phases (N2a and N2b). Time-resolved correlation analyses revealed that the relationship between neural coding and cognitive performance is modulated by genetic variations in all four genes. In all, these findings suggest that bilingual language control is shaped by an individual's experience switching between languages and their inherent genome.

How processing emotion affects language control in bilinguals

Research has shown that several variables affect language control among bilingual speakers but the effect of affective processing remains unexplored. Chinese-English bilinguals participated in a novel prime-target language switching experiment in which they first judged the affective valence (i.e., positive or negative) of auditorily presented words and then named pictures with neutral emotional valence in either the same (non-switch trial) or different language (switch trial). Brain activity was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The behavioral performance showed that the typical switch cost (i.e., the calculated difference between switch and non-switch trials) emerged after processing positive words but not after negative words. Brain imaging demonstrated that processing negative words immediately before non-switch picturing naming trials (but not for switch trials) increased activation in brain areas associated with domain-general cognitive control. The opposite patterns were found after processing positive words. These findings suggest that an (emotional) negative priming effect is induced by spontaneous exposure to negative words and that these priming effects may be triggered by reactive emotional processing and that they may interact with higher level cognitive functions.

Social facilitation and bilingual cognitive advantage: Bridging social psychology and psycholinguistics

This study examined the role of social context in the expression of the bilingual cognitive advantage in 145 bilingual university students. All participants mastered Arabic as their native language (L1), but half were highly proficient in French (high L2 group), whereas half were less proficient (low L2 group). A color-word Stroop test with incongruent, congruent and neutral stimuli was administered in single language blocks (Arabic or French words) or in a mixed block (Arabic and French words), either under social presence, or alone. Stroop interference was analyzed to assess the cost of resolving conflict in incongruent trials and was compared across groups and experimental conditions. If bilingualism comes with a cognitive advantage, a reduction of interference in high (vs. low) L2 proficient subjects is to be expected. Analysis revealed that interference was significantly reduced in high L2 group, but only under the single language condition. Furthermore, whereas social context and sex had no main effects, analysis revealed a significant 4-factor interaction between L2 proficiency, linguistic context, social context, and sex. Social presence further reduced interference (social facilitation) in high L2 proficient females, but not in males. Overall, the results suggest that mastering a second language comes with cognitive advantages which adapt dynamically to social and linguistic contexts in a sex-dependent manner. We argue that advancing bilingualism research requires more attention to the social environment.

Masked-Speech Recognition for Linguistically Diverse Populations: A Focused Review and Suggestions for the Future

PURPOSE

Twenty years ago, von Hapsburg and Peña (2002) wrote a tutorial that reviewed the literature on speech audiometry and bilingualism and outlined valuable recommendations to increase the rigor of the evidence base. This review article returns to that seminal tutorial to reflect on how that advice was applied over the last 20 years and to provide updated recommendations for future inquiry.

METHOD

We conducted a focused review of the literature on masked-speech recognition for bilingual children and adults. First, we evaluated how studies published since 2002 described bilingual participants. Second, we reviewed the literature on native language masked-speech recognition. Third, we discussed theoretically motivated experimental work. Fourth, we outlined how recent research in bilingual speech recognition can be used to improve clinical practice.

RESULTS

Research conducted since 2002 commonly describes bilingual samples in terms of their language status, competency, and history. Bilingualism was not consistently associated with poor masked-speech recognition. For example, bilinguals who were exposed to English prior to age 7 years and who were dominant in English performed comparably to monolinguals for masked-sentence recognition tasks. To the best of our knowledge, there are no data to document the masked-speech recognition ability of these bilinguals in their other language compared to a second monolingual group, which is an important next step. Nonetheless, individual factors that commonly vary within bilingual populations were associated with masked-speech recognition and included language dominance, competency, and age of acquisition. We identified methodological issues in sampling strategies that could, in part, be responsible for inconsistent findings between studies. For instance, disparities in socioeconomic status (SES) between recruited bilingual and monolingual groups could cause confounding bias within the research design.

CONCLUSIONS

Dimensions of the bilingual linguistic profile should be considered in clinical practice to inform counseling and (re)habilitation strategies since susceptibility to masking is elevated in at least one language for most bilinguals. Future research should continue to report language status, competency, and history but should also report language stability and demand for use data. In addition, potential confounds (e.g., SES, educational attainment) when making group comparisons between monolinguals and bilinguals must be considered.

The executive function of bilingual and monolingual children: A technical efficiency approach

This paper introduces a novel approach to evaluate performance in the executive functioning skills of bilingual and monolingual children. This approach targets method- and analysis-specific issues in the field, which has reached an impasse (Antoniou et al., 2021). This study moves beyond the traditional approach towards bilingualism by using an array of executive functioning tasks and frontier methodologies, which allow us to jointly consider multiple tasks and metrics in a new measure; technical efficiency (TE). We use a data envelopment analysis technique to estimate TE for a sample of 32 Greek-English bilingual and 38 Greek monolingual children. In a second stage, we compare the TE of the groups using an ANCOVA, a bootstrap regression, and a k-means nearest-neighbour technique, while controlling for a range of background variables. Results show that bilinguals have superior TE compared to their monolingual counterparts, being around 6.5% more efficient. Robustness tests reveal that TE yields similar results to the more complex conventional MANCOVA analyses, while utilising information in a more efficient way. By using the TE approach on a relevant existing dataset, we further highlight TE's advantages compared to conventional analyses; not only does TE use a single measure, instead of two principal components, but it also allows more group observations as it accounts for differences between the groups by construction.

Stereotype threat in learning situations? An investigation among language minority students

Stereotype threat (ST) is a potential explanation for inequalities in language competencies observed between students from different language backgrounds. Language competencies are an important prerequisite for educational success, wherefore the significance for investigation arises. While ST effects on achievement are empirically well documented, little is known about whether ST also impairs learning. Thus, we investigated vocabulary learning in language minority elementary school students, also searching for potential moderators. In a pre-post design, 240 fourth-grade students in Germany who were on average 10 years old (MAge = 9.92, SD = 0.64; 49.8% female) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: implicit ST, explicit ST without threat removal before posttest, explicit ST with threat removal before posttest, and a control group. Results showed that learning difficult vocabulary from reading two narrative texts was unaffected by ST. Neither students’ identification with their culture of residence and culture of origin nor stereotyped domain of reading were moderators. The findings are discussed with regard to content and methodological aspects such that a motivation effect might have undermined a possible ST effect. Implications for future research include examining the question at what age children become susceptible to ST and whether students have internalized negative stereotypes about their own group, which could increase the likelihood of ST effects occurring.

Testing the Bilingual Cognitive Advantage in Toddlers Using the Early Executive Functions Questionnaire

The present study aims to assess differences in executive functioning between monolingual and multilingual 23-month-old toddlers, both when dichotomizing multilingualism and assessing it on a continuum. It is hypothesized that multilinguals, individuals with greater non-dominant language exposure, and individuals with more translation equivalents, would perform better in the following domains: response inhibition, attentional flexibility, and regulation. No differences are expected for working memory. The Early Executive Functions Questionnaire, a newly developed parental report, is used to measure the four executive functions of interest. Multilinguals and individuals with greater non-dominant language exposure have significantly higher response inhibition; however, no differences are noted for any other executive function. Additionally, no associations between translation equivalents and executive functioning are found. Post-hoc analyses reveal that non-dominant language production had a positive correlation with working memory. The present findings support the notion of a domain-specific cognitive advantage for multilingual toddlers.

Shared Multimodal Input Through Social Coordination: Infants With Monolingual and Bilingual Learning Experiences

A growing number of children in the United States are exposed to multiple languages at home from birth. However, relatively little is known about the early process of word learning—how words are mapped to the referent in their child-centered learning experiences. The present study defined parental input operationally as the integrated and multimodal learning experiences as an infant engages with his/her parent in an interactive play session with objects. By using a head-mounted eye tracking device, we recorded visual scenes from the infant’s point of view, along with the parent’s social input with respect to gaze, labeling, and actions of object handling. Fifty-one infants and toddlers (aged 6–18 months) from an English monolingual or a diverse bilingual household were recruited to observe the early multimodal learning experiences in an object play session. Despite that monolingual parents spoke more and labeled more frequently relative to bilingual parents, infants from both language groups benefit from a comparable amount of socially coordinated experiences where parents name the object while the object is looked at by the infant. Also, a sequential path analysis reveals multiple social coordinated pathways that facilitate infant object looking. Specifically, young children’s attention to the referent objects is directly influenced by parent’s object handling. These findings point to the new approach to early language input and how multimodal learning experiences are coordinated socially for young children growing up with monolingual and bilingual learning contexts.

Literacy Acquisition Trajectories in Bilingual Language Minority Children and Monolingual Peers with Similar or Different SES: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study

Bilingualism and socio-economic status (SES) differentially affect linguistic and cognitive development. However, less evidence has been collected regarding their impact on literacy trajectories. The present longitudinal study evaluated the literacy development of language minority bilingual children (LMBC) and monolingual peers with different SES. A group of LMBC with low-SES (n = 18) and monolingual peers with low (n = 18) or high (n = 14) SES were followed from 2nd to 5th grade through a set of tasks assessing decoding (words, nonwords, passage), reading, and listening comprehension, and spelling skills. The results showed that all groups achieved better performances over time in all measures, except listening comprehension. However, low-SES LMBC underperformed in spelling tasks compared to the monolingual groups. In reading comprehension, there was a time*group interaction that showed how low-SES LMBC reached similar performances of low-SES monolinguals in fifth grade, but both groups underperformed compared to the high SES monolingual group. The discussion is focused on the need for research and educational settings to consider the differential impact of bilingualism and SES. Bilingualism seems to be associated with a longer time in developing adequate spelling skills, whereas SES was the primary underpinning of the reading comprehension gap over time.

Is Bilingual Receptive Vocabulary Assessment via Telepractice Comparable to Face-to-Face?

PURPOSE

This study investigated the effect of delivery method (face-to-face or telepractice), time, home language, and language ability on bilingual children's receptive vocabulary scores in Spanish and English.

METHOD

Participants included bilingual children with (n = 32) and without (n = 57) developmental language disorders (DLD) that were assessed at 2 time points about 1 year apart. All children participated in face-to-face assessment at Time 1. At Time 2, 41 children were assessed face-to-face and 48 children were assessed using telepractice.

RESULTS

Delivery method was not a significant predictor of receptive scores in either Spanish or English. Spanish and English receptive vocabulary increased over time in both children with and without DLD. Children with DLD had lower receptive vocabulary raw scores than children with typical development. Children who spoke English-only at home had significantly higher English receptive scores than children who spoke Spanish-only or both Spanish and English at home.

CONCLUSIONS

Face-to-face and telepractice assessments seem to be comparable methods for the assessments of Spanish and English receptive skills. Spanish and English receptive skills increased over time in children with and without DLD.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.17912297.

Development of inhibition and working memory in school-age Moroccan children

Studies regarding executive functions (EFs) in children rarely focus on populations of North Africa countries. In this context, this research aimed to adapt EFs tests to the Moroccan context and provide preliminary normative data on the development of inhibitory control and working memory (WM). In addition, the executive performance of school-age Moroccan children was examined, as well as the effects of gender, parents' education level and multilingualism. The sample included 115 children at age 7 to 12 from Fes city. Results showed that the translation and adaptation steps were sufficient for the cross-cultural adaptation of the tasks. In addition, an overall effect of age on inhibition and WM performances was found, whereas gender and parents' education level showed non-significant effects. Multilingualism effects had a partial positive influence on EFs, with improved scores on a few executive tasks for multilingual children compared to their bilingual peers. Overall, results suggest that EFs in school-age Moroccan children operate on relatively homogeneous development trajectories, marked by improvements that differ according to tasks. As neuropsychological tools and normative data are still lacking in Morocco, this study helps better understand EFs development of children in this country.

Cross-Language Transfer and Attentional Control in Early Bilingual Speech

PURPOSE

This study investigated the roles of cross-language transfer of first language (L1) and attentional control in second-language (L2) speech perception and production of sequential bilinguals, taking phonological overlap into account.

METHOD

Twenty-five monolingual Dutch-speaking and 25 sequential bilingual Turkish-Dutch-speaking 3- and 4-year-olds were tested using picture identification tasks for speech perception in L1 Turkish and L2 Dutch, single-word tasks for speech production in L1 and L2, and a visual search task for attentional control. Phonological overlap was manipulated by dividing the speech tasks into subsets of phonemes that were either shared or unshared between languages.

RESULTS

In Dutch speech perception and production, monolingual children obtained higher accuracies than bilingual peers. Bilinguals showed equal performance in L1 and L2 perception but scored higher on L1 than on L2 production. For speech perception of shared phonemes, linear regression analyses revealed no direct effects of attention and L1 on L2. For speech production of shared phonemes, attention and L1 directly affected L2. When exploring unshared phonemes, direct effects of attentional control on L2 were demonstrated not only for speech production but also for speech perception.

CONCLUSIONS

The roles of attentional control and cross-language transfer on L2 speech are different for shared and unshared phonemes. Whereas L2 speech production of shared phonemes is also supported by cross-language transfer of L1, L2 speech perception and production of unshared phonemes benefit from attentional control only. This underscores the clinical importance of considering phonological overlap and supporting attentional control when assisting young sequential bilinguals' L2 development.

Bilingualism effects on cognition in autistic children are not all-or-nothing: The role of socioeconomic status in intellectual skills in bilingual autistic children

LAY ABSTRACT

Previous research has suggested that bilingualism may improve cognition in children with autism, and that this boost may stem from improvement in executive functions. The Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children are considered to be reliable and valid measures of intelligence when administered to autistic children. These measures have so far revealed unusual psychometric properties in monolingual autistic children, notably distinctive patterns of strengths and weaknesses and low inter-correlation among verbal and nonverbal IQ subtests. The way bilingualism affects the intellectual functioning of autistic children has not been explored yet. Nor has there been a satisfactory factor structure that explains monolingual and bilingual autistic children's IQ performance in terms of individual factors, such as age and socioeconomic status. The current study examined the intelligence profiles of 316 bilingual and age- and gender-matched monolingual children with autism using the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Third Edition. The study applied clustering models to extract intelligence subtypes of autism, and mediation analyses to examine potential mediation effects of age and socioeconomic status on the children's verbal and nonverbal IQ performance. The results support the mediational role of the children's socioeconomic status in the association between bilingualism and intelligence. Low-socioeconomic status bilingual autistic children outperformed their monolingual peers on both verbal and nonverbal subtests, while the differences faded in medium-socioeconomic status and high-socioeconomic status children. The findings emphasize the positive effects of bilingualism on low-socioeconomic status autistic children's intelligence and also highlight high-socioeconomic status as a factor that may mitigate discrepant patterns of strengths and weaknesses in monolingual children's IQ performance.

How does bilingualism modify cognitive function? Attention to the mechanism

It has been claimed that bilingual experience leads to an enhancement of cognitive control across the lifespan, a claim that has been investigated by comparing monolingual and bilingual groups performing standard executive function (EF) tasks. The results of these studies have been inconsistent, however, leading to controversy over the essential assumptions underlying the research program, namely, whether bilingualism produces cognitive change. We argue that the source of the inconsistency is not in the evidence but rather in the framework that has typically been used to motivate the research and interpret the results. We examine the componential view of EF with its central role for inhibition and argue that it provides a poor fit to both bilingual experience and the results of these studies. As an alternative, we propose a more holistic account based on attentional control that overrides the processes in the componential model of EF and applies to a wider range of tasks. The key element in our account is that behavioral differences between monolingual and bilingual individuals reflect differences in the efficiency and deployment of attentional control between the two language groups. In support of this point we show how attentional control provides a more satisfactory account for a range of findings that cannot reasonably be attributed to inhibition. We also suggest that group differences will emerge only when the attentional demands of a task exceed the control abilities of one of the groups, regardless of the EF components involved. We then review literature from across the lifespan to evaluate the extent to which this account is consistent with existing evidence, and conclude with some suggestions on how the field may be advanced by new lines of empirical enquiry.

The Effect of Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy on Improvements in Expressive Linguistic Disorders of Bilingual Children

The present study attempted to investigate the effect of cognitive-behavioral play therapy (CBPT) on the improvements in the expressive linguistic disorders of bilingual children. The population consists of all bilingual children with expressive linguistic disorders studying in preschools. Considering the study’s objectives, a sample of 60 people, in three groups (experimental, control, and pseudo-control), were selected using WISC, TOLD, and clinical interviews. The experimental group members participated in CBPT training sessions. The training consisted of twelve 90-min sessions, three times per week programs held every other day. The pseudo-control group received training different from play therapy. The experimental group members were subjected to the follow-up test 2 months after the end of the intervention. All three groups sat the TOLD3 test before and after the experiment. Data analysis was carried out using ANCOVA. The results of data analysis suggested that CBPT can improve the expressive language disorders of bilingual children.

Majority language skill, not measures of bilingualism, predicts executive attention in bilingual children

Evidence is mixed regarding whether and why bilingual children might be advantaged in the development of executive functions. Five preregistered hypotheses regarding sources of a bilingual advantage were tested with data from 102 Spanish-English bilingual children and 25 English monolingual children who were administered a test of executive attention, the flanker task, at 7, 8, and 9 years of age. Measures of the children's early and concurrent bilingual exposure and their concurrent English and Spanish skill were available from a larger longitudinal study in which these children participated. Tests of the preregistered hypotheses yielded null findings: The bilingual children's executive attention abilities were unrelated to their amount of early exposure to mixed input, to balance in their early dual language exposure, to balance in their concurrent exposure, to their degree of bilingualism, or to their combined Spanish + English vocabulary score. English vocabulary score was a positive significant correlate of executive attention among the bilingual children, but those bilingual children above the group median in English vocabulary did not outperform the monolingual children when the comparison was adjusted for nonverbal IQ. These findings suggest that a language learning ability may explain the association between bilingualism and executive function. Because the best statistical approach to testing for effects on differences is a matter of dispute, all analyses were conducted with both a difference score and a residual gain score as the outcome variable. The central findings, but not all findings, were the same with both approaches.

Emergent Bilinguals With Specific Reading Comprehension Deficits: A Comparative and Longitudinal Analysis

This study centered on emergent bilingual (EB) students with specific reading comprehension deficits (S-RCD), that is, with poor reading comprehension despite solid word identification skills. The participants were 209 students in Grades 2 to 4, including both EBs and English monolinguals (EMs) with and without S-RCD. Mean comparisons indicated that EBs and EMs with S-RCD showed weaknesses relative to typically developing (TD) readers in oral language, word identification, inference making, and reading engagement, but not in executive functioning. Longitudinal analyses indicated that across two academic years S-RCD persisted for 41% of EBs and EMs alike. Altogether, the study extends research on EBs with S-RCD by identifying variables beyond oral language that may account for their reading comprehension difficulties and providing insight into the extent to which their reading comprehension and word identification performance levels evolve during elementary school. Furthermore, the findings point to the importance of early identification and intervention for weaknesses in reading comprehension and its component elements in both EBs and EMS.

A Comparison Study of the Tehran Norms to the Reference Norms on Children Performance of the Bayley III

Objectives

The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (3rd ed.; Bayley III) are widely used to assess cognitive, language, and motor development of children aged 1-42 months. It is unclear whether or not the reference norms of the Bayley III are acceptable for use in other populations or lead to over- or underestimating the developmental status of target children. This study aimed to compare the Tehran norms to the reference norms.

Materials & Methods

We used Bayley III norms to assess cognitive, language, and motor development of 1,674 healthy children from health care centers in Tehran. Differences between the scaled scores were calculated based on the Tehran and reference norms. A one-sample multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to control the mean difference scores over all subtests. When MANOVA showed significant differences between the scaled scores based on the Tehran and reference norms, we used univariate analysis to see which subtest and age group led to these significant differences. Finally, the proportions of children with low scores (scaled scores <7 or -1 SD and <4 or -2 SD) based on 2 norms were compared using the McNemar test to determine the over- or underestimation of developmental delay.

Results

The scaled scores based on the Tehran norms varied across values based on the reference norms in all subtests. The mean differences were significant in all 5 subtests (p < .05) with large effect sizes for receptive and expressive communication, fine and gross motor subtests of .20, .23, .14, and .25, respectively, as well as with a small effect size for the cognition subtest of .02. Large effect sizes for all age groups were found for cognition, expressive communication, and fine motor subtests. More children scored below 1 and 2 SD using the Tehran norms. Using the reference norms resulted in underestimation of developmental delay regarding cognitive, receptive and expressive communication, and fine and gross motor skills.

Conclusion

Population-specific norms should be used to identify children with low scores for referral and intervention. The Tehran norms differed from the reference norms for all subtests, and these differences were clinically significant.

Cross-Task Adaptation Effects of Bilingual Language Control on Cognitive Control: A Dual-Brain EEG Examination of Simultaneous Production and Comprehension

For bilinguals, speaking and listening are assisted by complex control processes including conflict monitoring and inhibition. However, the extent to which these processes adapt to linguistic and situational needs has been examined separately for language production and comprehension. In the present study, we use a dual-EEG to record the carry-over effects of language control on general cognitive control in three language contexts (single-first language [L1], single-second language [L2], and mixed). Chinese learners of English were placed in dyads in which one participant was asked to name pictures while the other listened. Interleaved after each naming/listening trial were flanker trials. The results from picture naming and listening revealed higher delta and theta synchronization in the single-L2 and mixed contexts compared with the single-L1 context and higher theta synchronization in the mixed context compared with the single-L2 and single-L1 contexts. The results from the interleaved flanker trials demonstrated that inhibition was adaptively generalized in the single-L2 and mixed contexts. Altogether, the findings support the natural adaptation of language control to cognitive control and underscore the importance of linguistic context. We argue that these adaptive patterns have the potential to affect corresponding control processes across language and cognitive control tasks.

Efficacy of Two School-Based Interventions on Notational Ability of Bilingual Preschoolers: A Group-Randomized Trial Study

This randomized trial study aimed to analyze the efficacy of two different school-based interventions-normal preschool literacy teaching, and the PASSI intervention carried out for different durations (12 versus 30 weeks)-on notational knowledge of bilingual language-minority (BLM) preschoolers and their monolingual peers, after controlling their linguistic background and socio- economic status. A total of 251 children aged 4-5 years (M age = 4 years and 8 months; SD age = 6 months; 49% males, 51% females) were recruited from 19 classes in five preschools and randomly assigned to three groups that corresponded to different notational-focused interventions: (1) normal preschool literacy teaching (Condition 1; n = 47); (2) the PASSI intervention carried out for 12 weeks (Condition 2; n = 119); and (3) the PASSI intervention carried out for 30 weeks (Condition 3; n = 85). We collected two waves of data before and after the interventions regarding notational knowledge and phonological skills. Using the mixed ANOVA, we found that the PASSI intervention (both durations of 12 and 30 weeks) led to a significantly higher level of notational knowledge in BLM children and their monolingual peers. In addition, we observed that with the PASSI intervention carried out for 30 weeks, the baseline difference between BLMs and their monolingual peers was nullified. This study demonstrates that well-designed, school-based programs can benefit language-minority children by supporting their emergent notational knowledge. This paper also discusses implications for bilingual education policymaking.

Electrophysiological signatures of attentional control in bilingual processing: Evidence from proactive interference

Monolingual and bilingual participants performed a Proactive Interference task in verbal and nonverbal conditions while EEG was recorded. Behavioral results showed faster responses for bilinguals on interference trials in the nonverbal condition, and electrophysiological results indicated greater attentional control for bilinguals. ROI analyses showed this pattern for bilinguals mainly in the verbal condition, whereas whole brain analyses found this association in both conditions. Frequency power analysis found activity related to interference trials was associated with recruitment of different neural resources for verbal and nonverbal conditions. Nonverbal results indicated beta activity for interference trials in bilinguals and the verbal condition showed this pattern in theta and gamma frequency bands as well, revealing more extensive brain activation in the verbal domain for bilinguals. For monolinguals, frequency power in beta, gamma, and theta were related to facilitation trials. These results suggest different strategies for allocating attention by monolingual and bilingual young adults.

Does Language Make a Difference? A Study of Language Dominance and Inhibitory Control

Although extensive research has been done to compare monolingual and bilingual children’s executive function, there are fewer studies that look at the relation between bilingual children’s languages and executive function. The purpose of this study was two-fold; first, to compare inhibitory control (executive function) in monolingual and bilingual children and second, to determine what vocabulary measure (dominant vs. non-dominant language) was related to inhibitory control in bilingual children. Twenty monolingual (English) and 20 bilingual (English-Spanish) children between the ages of 8 and 12 completed a vocabulary test (in English and Spanish) and an inhibitory control task (the flanker task). Analysis of Covariances (ANCOVAs) revealed no significant differences between monolingual and bilingual children in reaction time (RT) or accuracy in the flanker task after controlling for maternal education. Partial correlations controlling for age showed that English expressive vocabulary (dominant language), but not Spanish, was positively correlated with inhibitory control (larger vocabulary and better inhibitory control), suggesting that bilingual children may use their dominant language to self-regulate over their non-dominant language, increasing the inhibitory control associated to the dominant language.

Age-related changes of cognitive flexibility and planning skills in school-age Moroccan children

North African countries such as Morocco are scarcely the focus of neuropsychological studies, although the role of culture in cognition processes is widely recognized. Currently, studies on flexibility and planning skills in the Moroccan context are still lacking and there are no adapted tools to assess these functions in the country. In this scenario, this study aimed to adapt the Child Executive Functions Battery (CEF-B) tasks and the playing cards task of the Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome for Children (BADS-C) to Morocco and provide preliminary normative data on the development of flexibility and planning. In addition, this study proposed to examine the effects of gender, parents' education level and multilingualism on executive development. To this end, six tasks of the CEF-B were adapted through a translation and back-translation process and administered to 115 children aged 7-12 years. Results showed that the adopted procedure was sufficient for the cross-cultural adaptation of the tasks. Analyses showed a continuous increase with age on executive performance in most of the variables. However, gender and parents' level of education showed mostly non-significant effects. On the other hand, a significant effect of multilingualism was found on the two analyzed functions, with better results for multilingual children if compared to their bilingual peers. In general, results suggest that the identified pattern of development is consistent with international studies. Although normative data on executive functions are still lacking in Morocco, this unprecedented study will help better understand their development in this context.

The Home Learning Environment of Primary School Children with Down Syndrome and those with Williams Syndrome

Background and aims: Research on typically developing (TD) populations has shown that the home learning environment plays a significant role in cognitive development and learning, but very little is known about the home learning environment of children with Down syndrome (DS) or children with Williams syndrome (WS). The present study examined and compared, for the first time, the home learning environment of children diagnosed with DS and children diagnosed with WS to investigate whether different cognitive profiles were reflected in their home literacy and number experiences. Methods and procedures: Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a web-based survey from 58 parents and one foster parent of primary school children with DS (n = 35) and WS (n = 24) mostly based in the UK. The survey targeted the children’s general level of functioning and academic skills; type, format, and frequency of home learning activities; parents’ expectations for their child’s academic outcomes; parents’ attitudes towards literacy and mathematics; children’s interest towards mathematics; and the use of technology to support home learning activities. Outcomes and results: Our results showed that, overall, the home learning environment of children with DS and children with WS were similar but changed based on the child’s cognitive profile. Comparative analyses showed that parents of children with DS engaged more often in activities supporting counting than parents of children with WS, despite both groups reporting difficulties with this skill. Moreover, our results indicated that literacy-based activities occurred more often than mathematics-based activities and that the home numeracy environment was characterized by activities supporting different mathematical skills such as counting, arithmetic, and numeracy. Parents in both groups engaged with their child in both formal and informal literacy and mathematics-based activities, but informal activities occurred more often when supporting counting and number recognition skills. Conclusions and implications: The current study provides evidence that the home learning environment of children with DS and children with WS include different literacy- and mathematics-based activities and that the home learning environment changes on the basis of the child’s strengths and weaknesses. The findings are discussed in relation to previous studies and the impact on parental interventions.

Selective Auditory Attention Associated With Language Skills but Not With Executive Functions in Swedish Preschoolers

Associations between language and executive functions (EFs) are well-established but previous work has often focused more on EFs than on language. To further clarify the language-EF relationship, we assessed several aspects of language and EFs in 431 Swedish children aged 4-6, including selective auditory attention which was measured in an event-related potential paradigm. We also investigated potential associations to age, socioeconomic status (SES), bi-/multilingualism, sex and aspects of preschool attendance and quality. Language and EFs correlated weakly to moderately, indicating that relying on measures of vocabulary alone may overestimate the strength of the language-EF relationship. Contrary to predictions, we found no correlations between selective attention and EFs. There were however correlations between morphosyntactic accuracy and selective auditory attention which is in line with previous work and suggests a specific link between morphosyntax and the ability to suppress irrelevant stimuli. In Sweden, socioeconomic differences are rather small and preschool is universally available, but nevertheless, aspects of parental SES predicted children's performance on all measures. Bi-/multilingual children performed lower on language also when controlling for SES, highlighting the need for interventions to reduce inequalities in educational outcomes already in preschool. A female advantage was found for both language and EFs, whereas preschool attendance and quality were not significantly related to outcome measures. Future work should include longitudinal studies of language and EF development, include children from diverse SES backgrounds and contribute toward a theoretical framework that further clarifies the language-EF relationship.

Associations between Bilingualism and Memory Generalization During Infancy: Does Socioeconomic Status Matter?

Past studies have reported memory differences between monolingual and bilingual infants (Brito & Barr, 2012; Singh et al., 2015). A common critique within the bilingualism literature is the absence of socioeconomic indicators and/or a lack of socioeconomic diversity among participants. Previous research has demonstrated robust bilingual differences in memory generalization from 6- to 24-months of age. The goal of the current study was to examine if these findings would replicate in a sample of 18-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds (N = 92). Results indicate no differences between language groups on working memory or cued recall, but significant differences for memory generalization, with bilingual infants outperforming monolingual infants regardless of socioeconomic status (SES). These findings replicate and extend results from past studies (Brito & Barr, 2012; Brito, Sebastián-Gallés, & Barr, 2015) and suggest possible differential learning patterns dependent on linguistic experience.

Bilinguals who stutter: A cognitive perspective

PURPOSE

Brain differences, both in structure and executive functioning, have been found in both developmental stuttering and bilingualism. However, the etiology of stuttering remains unknown. The early suggestion that stuttering is a result of brain dysfunction has since received support from various behavioral and neuroimaging studies that have revealed functional and structural brain changes in monolinguals who stutter (MWS). In addition, MWS appear to show deficits in executive control. However, there is a lack of data on bilinguals who stutter (BWS). This literature review is intended to provide an overview of both stuttering and bilingualism as well as synthesize areas of overlap among both lines of research and highlight knowledge gaps in the current literature.

METHODS

A systematic literature review on both stuttering and bilingualism studies was conducted, searching for articles containing "stuttering" and/or "bilingualism" and either "brain", "executive functions", "executive control", "motor control", "cognitive reserve", or "brain reserve" in the PubMed database. Additional studies were found by examining the reference list of studies that met the inclusion criteria.

RESULTS

A total of 148 references that met the criteria for inclusion in this paper were used in the review. A comparison of the impact of stuttering or bilingualism on the brain are discussed.

CONCLUSION

Previous research examining a potential bilingual advantage for BWS is mixed. However, if such an advantage does exist, it appears to offset potential deficits in executive functioning that may be associated with stuttering.

How Living in Vulnerable Conditions Undermines Cognitive Development: Evidence from the Pediatric Population of Guatemala

Low-socioeconomic backgrounds represent a risk factor for children’s cognitive development and well-being. Evidence from many studies highlights that cognitive processes may be adversely affected by vulnerable contexts. The aim of this study was to determine if living in vulnerable conditions affects childhood cognitive development. To achieve this, we assessed the performance of a sample of 347 Guatemalan children and adolescents aged from 6 to 17 years (M = 10.8, SD = 3) in a series of 10 neuropsychological tasks recently standardized for the pediatric population of this country. Two-fifths of the sample (41.5%) could be considered to have vulnerable backgrounds, coming from families with low-socioeconomic status or having had a high exposure to violence. As expected, results showed lower scores in language and attention for the vulnerable group. However, contrary to expectations, consistent systematic differences were not found in the executive function tasks. Vulnerable children obtained lower scores in cognitive flexibility compared to the non-vulnerable group, but higher scores in inhibition and problem-solving tasks. These results suggest the importance of developing pediatric standards of cognitive performance that take environmental vulnerable conditions into consideration. These findings, one of the first obtained in the Guatemalan population, also provide relevant information for specific educational interventions and public health policies which will enhance vulnerable children and adolescent cognitive development.

Home Language Activities and Expressive Vocabulary of Toddlers from Low-SES Monolingual Families and Bilingual Immigrant Families

Children from low-SES (socioeconomic status) and minority language immigrant families are at risk of vocabulary difficulties due to the less varied and complex language in the home environment. Children are less likely to be involved in home language activities (HLA) in interaction with adults in low-SES than in higher-SES families. However, few studies have investigated the HLA variability among low-SES, minority language bilingual immigrant families. This longitudinal study analyzes the frequency and duration of HLA and their predictive roles for expressive vocabulary acquisition in 70 equivalent low-SES monolingual and bilingual toddlers from minority contexts. HLA and vocabulary were assessed at 24 and 30 months in the majority language (Italian) and in total (majority+minority language) using parent and teacher reports. The frequency and duration of HLA in interaction with adults in total, but not in the majority language, at 24 months were similar for the two groups. These activities uniquely accounted for expressive vocabulary at 30 months, after accounting for total vocabulary at 24 months, in both groups. In conclusion, a minority-majority language context is not an additional risk factor for vocabulary acquisition if HLA is considered in interaction with adults in both languages. HLA are proximal environmental protective factors for vocabulary acquisition.

No Association Between the Home Math Environment and Numerical and Patterning Skills in a Large and Diverse Sample of 5- to 6-year-olds

Selecting a large and diverse sample of 5–6-year-old preschool children (179 boys and 174 girls; M_age = 70.03 months, SD_age = 3.43), we aimed to extend previous findings on variability in children’s home math environment (i.e., home math activities, parental expectations, and attitudes) and its association with children’s mathematical skills. We operationalized mathematics in a broader way than in previous studies, by considering not only children’s numerical skills but also their patterning skills as integral components of early mathematical development. We investigated the effects of children’s gender and socioeconomic status (SES) on their home math environment, examined the associations between children’s home math environment and their mathematical skills, and verified whether these associations were moderated by children’s gender and/or SES. Parents of 353 children completed a home math environment questionnaire and all children completed measures of their numerical (e.g., object counting) and patterning skills (e.g., extending repeating patterns). Results indicated no effect of children’s gender on their home math environment. There was no effect of SES on the performed home math activities, but small SES differences existed in parents’ math-related expectations and their attitudes. We found no evidence for associations between children’s home math environment and their mathematical skills. Furthermore, there were no moderating effects of gender or SES on these associations. One explanation for these findings might relate to the characteristics of the general preschool system in the country of the present study (Belgium). Future studies should consider the effect of the preschool learning environment because it might explain differences between studies and countries with regard to the home math environment and its association with mathematical skills.

Comparison of Auditory, Language, Memory, and Attention Abilities in Children With and Without Listening Difficulties

Objectives School-age children with and without parent-reported listening difficulties (LiD) were compared on auditory processing, language, memory, and attention abilities. The objective was to extend what is known so far in the literature about children with LiD by using multiple measures and selective novel measures across the above areas. Design Twenty-six children who were reported by their parents as having LiD and 26 age-matched typically developing children completed clinical tests of auditory processing and multiple measures of language, attention, and memory. All children had normal-range pure-tone hearing thresholds bilaterally. Group differences were examined. Results In addition to significantly poorer speech-perception-in-noise scores, children with LiD had reduced speed and accuracy of word retrieval from long-term memory, poorer short-term memory, sentence recall, and inferencing ability. Statistically significant group differences were of moderate effect size; however, standard test scores of children with LiD were not clinically poor. No statistically significant group differences were observed in attention, working memory capacity, vocabulary, and nonverbal IQ. Conclusions Mild signal-to-noise ratio loss, as reflected by the group mean of children with LiD, supported the children's functional listening problems. In addition, children's relative weakness in select areas of language performance, short-term memory, and long-term memory lexical retrieval speed and accuracy added to previous research on evidence-based areas that need to be evaluated in children with LiD who almost always have heterogenous profiles. Importantly, the functional difficulties faced by children with LiD in relation to their test results indicated, to some extent, that commonly used assessments may not be adequately capturing the children's listening challenges. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12808607.

Contrasting executive function development among primary school children from Hong Kong and Germany

Previous research findings indicate that young children from East Asia outperform their counterparts from Europe and North America on executive function (EF) tasks. However, very few cross-national studies have focused on EF development during middle childhood. The current study assessed the EF performance of 170 children in grades 2 and 4 from Hong Kong (n = 80) and Germany (n = 90) in a cross-sectional design. Children completed tasks assessing the main components of EF, namely inhibition (child-friendly Stroop task), updating (Object Span task), and shifting (Contingency Naming task). Results of multilevel models showed that all three EF measures differentiated well between younger and older children across the full sample. However, contrary to our hypothesis and previous research, we did not find any significant differences in EF performance between children from Hong Kong and Germany at primary school age. Our findings highlight the possibility that issues related to the measurement of EF and features specific to Hong Kong and Germany underlie our results.

Effects of developmental language disorder and bilingualism on children's executive functioning: A longitudinal study

BACKGROUND

Children's executive functioning (EF) is often negatively associated with a developmental language disorder (DLD) and positively related to bilingualism. However, both regarding children with DLD and bilingual children, findings are mixed and few studies have investigated the combination of DLD and bilingualism in relation to EF.

AIMS

This study investigated the effects of DLD and bilingualism on children's EF development.

METHODS

Monolingual and bilingual children with DLD and typical development (TD; N = 32 in each group) were tested three times with yearly intervals (M_AGE = 71 months at time 1). Verbal and visuospatial working memory, selective attention, and inhibition were assessed.

RESULTS

Monolinguals and bilinguals with DLD had weak working memory and inhibition skills at each time point compared to TD peers, which could partly be explained by verbal short-term memory limitations. Positive effects of bilingualism emerged when controlling for Dutch vocabulary and morphology skills, and were most pronounced at time 1.

CONCLUSIONS

Monolinguals and bilinguals with DLD have similar and persistent EF deficits, which are partly secondary to verbal short-term memory weaknesses. Bilinguals performed better on EF than monolinguals when Dutch language knowledge was controlled for. This effect was found regardless of DLD and was most prominent at age 5-6 years.

Continuous effects of bilingualism and attention on Flanker task performance

Both bilingualism and attention contribute to the development of executive functioning (EF), with higher levels of both leading to better outcomes. The present study treats bilingualism and attention as continuous variables to investigate their impact on EF. Eighty-two 9-year-olds who were attending a French school in an anglophone community completed a flanker task. Children's progress in French represented their level of bilingualism, and attention was assessed through a standard standardized instrument. Degree of bilingualism and degree of attention were both positively related to performance, but exposure to a third language in the home did not further affect outcomes.

The Impact of Bilingualism on Executive Functions in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review Based on the PRISMA Method

Approximately half of the world's population is bilingual or multilingual. The bilingual advantage theory claims that the constant need to control both known languages, that are always active in the brain, to use the one suitable for each specific context improves cognitive functions and specifically executive functions. However, some authors do not agree on the bilingual effect, given the controversial results of studies on this topic. This systematic review aims to summarize the results of studies on the relationship between bilingualism and executive functions. The review was conducted according to PRISMA-statement through searches in the scientific database PsychINFO, PsycARTICLES, MEDLINE, and PUBMED. Studies included in this review had at least one bilingual and monolingual group, participants aged between 5 and 17 years, and at least one executive function measure. Studies on second language learners, multilingual people, and the clinical population were excluded. Fifty-three studies were included in the systematic review. Evidence supporting the bilingual effect seems to appear when assessing inhibition and cognitive flexibility, but to disappear when working memory is considered. The inconsistent results of the studies do not allow drawing definite conclusions on the bilingual effect. Further studies are needed; they should consider the role of some modulators (e.g., language history and context, methodological differences) on the observed results.

Multiple hippocampal transections for refractory pediatric mesial temporal lobe epilepsy: seizure and neuropsychological outcomes

OBJECTIVE

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common focal epilepsy across adult and pediatric age groups. It is also the most amenable to surgery, with excellent long-term seizure outcome. Most TLE cases have an epileptogenic zone in the mesial temporal structures, namely the hippocampus. Resecting the dominant hippocampus has been shown to be associated with significant verbal memory deficits, especially in patients with intact verbal memory scores presurgically. Multiple hippocampal transection (MHT) is a relatively new surgical technique designed to interrupt the longitudinal hippocampal circuitry involved in seizure propagation yet preserve the circular fibers involved in memory function. This technique has been used to treat mesial TLE in both dominant- and nondominant-hemisphere cases, almost exclusively in adults. It has been applied to normal and sclerotic hippocampi.

METHODS

In this study, information on 3 pediatric patients who underwent MHT for mesial TLE at Children's Wisconsin between 2017 and 2018 is included. Clinical, electroencephalographic, and neuropsychological features and outcomes are described in detail.

RESULTS

MRI revealed a tumor in the amygdala with a normal hippocampus in 1 patient and hippocampal sclerosis in 2 patients. All patients underwent stereoelectroencephalography confirming the involvement of the hippocampus in seizure onset. MHTs were completed under intraoperative monitoring, with amygdala and temporal tip resection in all patients due to early spread to these regions. All patients had excellent seizure outcomes at 1 year, and 2 of the 3 patients remain seizure free at last follow-up (range 20-36 months), all with stable or improved neuropsychological profiles, including verbal memory.

CONCLUSIONS

MHT is a relatively new surgical procedure designed to preserve essential memory circuitry while disrupting seizure propagation pathways in the hippocampus. A growing body of literature shows good seizure and neuropsychological results, but mainly in adults. This is the first series of MHTs used exclusively in children at one medical center, showcasing excellent seizure control and preservation of neuropsychological functioning. One of the patients is also the first described to have MHT in the setting of an amygdalar tumor abutting the hippocampus, further expanding the pathological setting in which MHT can be used effectively.

Meta-Analysis Reveals a Bilingual Advantage That Is Dependent on Task and Age

Debate continues on whether a bilingual advantage exists with respect to executive functioning. This report synthesized the results of 170 studies to test whether the bilingual advantage is dependent on the task used to assess executive functioning and the age of the participants. The results of the meta-analyses indicated that the bilingual advantage was both task- and age-specific. Bilinguals were significantly faster than monolinguals (Hedges' g values ranged from 0.23 to 0.34), and significantly more accurate than monolinguals (Hedges' g values ranged between 0.18 and 0.49) on four out of seven tasks. Also, an effect of age was found whereby the bilingual advantage was larger for studies comprising samples aged 50-years and over (Hedges' g = 0.49), compared to those undertaken with participants aged between 18 and 29 years (Hedges' g = 0.12). The extent to which the bilingual advantage might be due to publication bias was assessed using multiple methods. These were Egger's Test of Asymmetry, Duval and Tweedie's Trim and Fill, Classic Fail-Safe N, and PET-PEESE. Publication bias was only found when using Egger's Test of Asymmetry and PET-PEESE method, but not when using the other methods. This review indicates that if bilingualism does enhance executive functioning, the effects are modulated by task and age. This may arise because using multiple languages has a highly specific effect on executive functioning which is only observable in older, relative to younger, adults. The finding that publication bias was not uniformly detected across the different methods raises questions about the impact that unpublished (or undetected) studies have on meta-analyses of this literature.

Which measure of socioeconomic status best predicts bilingual lexical abilities and how? A focus on four-year-olds exposed to two majority languages

This study evaluates the ability of different measures of socioeconomic status (SES) to predict lexical outcomes for preschoolers raised in a context of nationwide bilingualism. The participants were 58 children aged 3;11-4;3 from Maltese-dominant homes who attended state preschools. Receptive picture name judgement and picture naming, in Maltese and English, were employed to measure receptive and expressive lexical abilities, respectively. Lexical outcomes for four individual SES variables and a single composite SES measure were similar but not directly interchangeable. The composite SES variable emerged as most strongly predictive of children's lexical performance. Receptive judgement of phonological accuracy improved similarly in both languages with higher composite SES. Naming skills increased significantly in English but not in Maltese, suggesting differences in English input related to parental SES. A focus on SES in relation to lexical skills in two majority languages is novel and adds to current understanding of normative bilingual acquisition.

Are the Effects of Variation in Quantity of Daily Bilingual Exposure and Socioeconomic Status on Language and Cognitive Abilities Independent in Preschool Children?

Bilingual exposure (BE) and socioeconomic status (SES) are associated with children's development, but their specific and unique effects are still unclear. This study analyzed the influence of these environmental factors on a set of cognitive and linguistic abilities in preschoolers to disentangle their effects. One hundred-eleven Italian-speaking preschool children (mean age = 61 months; SD = 6.8) growing in a monolingual or multilingual context completed an assessment of cognitive (theory of mind, inhibition, attention shifting and working memory) and linguistic abilities (vocabulary, grammar, narrative comprehension, lexical access). The results of hierarchical regressions with predictors variation in BE (both Length and Daily exposure) and SES on each ability, shown a specific contribution of variation in SES, after controlling for BE, in vocabulary, grammar, and working memory (WM), and a specific contribution of variation in BE, over and above effect of SES, in vocabulary, narrative comprehension and WM. In addition, we found an interaction between these factors in predicting the performance of the theory of mind task (ToM). To conclude, variations in BE and SES are related independently to individual differences in linguistic and cognitive skills of children in preschool.