Specific Language Impairment in African American English and Southern White English: Measures of Tense and Agreement With Dialect-Informed Probes and Strategic Scoring

fNIRS Studies of Individuals with Speech and Language Impairment Underreport Sociodemographics: A Systematic Review

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a promising tool for scientific discovery and clinical application. However, its utility depends upon replicable reporting. We evaluate reporting of sociodemographics in fNIRS studies of speech and language impairment and asked the following: (1) Do refereed fNIRS publications report participant sociodemographics? (2) For what reasons are participants excluded from analysis? This systematic review was preregistered with PROSPERO (CRD42022342959) and followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol. Searches in August 2022 included the terms: (a) fNIRS or functional near-infrared spectroscopy or NIRS or near-infrared spectroscopy, (b) speech or language, and (c) disorder or impairment or delay. Searches yielded 38 qualifying studies from 1997 to present. Eight studies (5%) reported at least partial information on race or ethnicity. Few studies reported SES (26%) or language background (47%). Most studies reported geographic location (100%) and gender/sex (89%). Underreporting of sociodemographics in fNIRS studies of speech and language impairment hinders the generalizability of findings. Replicable reporting is imperative for advancing the utility of fNIRS.

Sentence Production and Sentence Repetition in Autistic Adolescents and Young Adults: Linguistic Sensitivity to Finiteness Marking

PURPOSE

Despite the clinical utility of sentence production and sentence repetition to identify language impairment in autism, little is known about the extent to which these tasks are sensitive to potential language variation. One promising method is strategic scoring, which has good clinical utility for identifying language impairment in nonautistic school-age children across variants of English. This report applies strategic scoring to analyze sentence repetition and sentence production in autistic adolescents and adults.

METHOD

Thirty-one diverse autistic adolescents and adults with language impairment (ALI; n = 15) and without language impairment (ASD; n = 16) completed the Formulated Sentences and Recalling Sentences subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fifth Edition. Descriptive analyses and regression evaluated effects of scoring condition, group, and scoring condition by group on outcomes, as well as group differences in finiteness marking across utterances and morphosyntactic structures.

RESULTS

Strategic and unmodified item-level scores were essentially constant on both subtests and significantly lower in the ALI than the ASD group. Only group predicted item-level scores. Group differences were limited to: percent grammatical utterances on Formulated Sentences and percent production of overt structures combined on Sentence Repetition (ALI < ASD).

DISCUSSION

Findings support the feasibility of strategic scoring for sentence production and sentence repetition to identify language impairment and indicate that potential language variation in finiteness marking did not confound outcomes in this sample. To better understand the clinical utility of strategic scoring, replication with a larger sample varying in age and comparisons with dialect-sensitive measures are needed.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25822336.

African American Preschoolers' Performance on Norm-Referenced Language Assessments: Examining the Effect of Dialect Density and the Use of Scoring Modifications

PURPOSE

We investigated and compared the outcomes from two standardized, norm-referenced screening assessments of language (i.e., Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-Second Edition [CELFP-2], Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test [DELV-ST]) with African American preschoolers whose spoken dialect differed from that of General American English (GAE). We (a) described preschoolers' performance on the CELFP-2 Core Language Index (CLI) and its subtests with consideration of degree of dialect variation (DVAR) observed, (b) investigated how the application of dialect-sensitive scoring modifications to the expressive morphology and syntax Word Structure (WS) subtest affected CELFP-2 CLI scores, and (c) evaluated the screening classification agreement rates between the DELV-ST and the CELFP-2 CLI.

METHOD

African American preschoolers (N = 284) completed the CELFP-2 CLI subtests (i.e., Sentence Structure, WS, Expressive Vocabulary) and the DELV-ST. Density of spoken dialect use was estimated with the DELV-ST Part I Language Variation Status, and percentage of DVAR was calculated. The CELFP-2 WS subtest was scored with and without dialect-sensitive scoring modifications.

RESULTS

Planned comparisons of CELFP-2 CLI performance indicated statistically significant differences in performance based on DELV-ST-determined degree of language variation groupings. Scoring modifications applied to the WS subtest increased subtest scaled scores and CLI composite standard scores. However, preschoolers who demonstrated strong variation from GAE continued to demonstrate significantly lower performance than preschoolers who demonstrated little to no language variation. Affected-status agreement rates between assessments (modified and unmodified CELFP-2 CLI scores and DELV-ST Part II Diagnostic Risk Status) were extremely low.

CONCLUSIONS

The application of dialect-specific scoring modifications to standardized, norm-referenced assessments of language must be simultaneously viewed through the lenses of equity, practicality, and psychometry. The results of our multistage study reiterate the need for reliable methods of identifying risk for developmental language disorder within children who speak American English dialects other than GAE.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.26017978.

Transcription Decisions of Conjoined Independent Clauses Are Equitable Across Dialects but Impact Measurement Outcomes

PURPOSE

Transcription of conjoined independent clauses within language samples varies across professionals. Some transcribe these clauses as two separate utterances, whereas others conjoin them within a single utterance. As an inquiry into equitable practice, we examined rates of conjoined independent clauses produced by children and the impact of separating these clauses within utterances on measures of mean length of utterance (MLU) by a child's English dialect, clinical status, and age.

METHOD

The data were archival and included 246 language samples from children classified by their dialect (African American English or Southern White English) and clinical status (developmental language disorder [DLD] or typically developing [TD]), with those in the TD group further classified by their age (4 years [TD4] or 6 years [TD6]).

RESULTS

Rates of conjoined independent clauses and the impact of these clauses on MLU varied by clinical status (DLD < TD) and age (TD4 < TD6), but not by dialect. Correlations between the rate of conjoined clauses, MLU, and language test scores were also similar across the two dialects.

CONCLUSIONS

Transcription decisions regarding conjoined independent clauses within language samples lead to equitable measurement outcomes across dialects of English. Nevertheless, transcribing conjoined independent clauses as two separate utterances reduces one's ability to detect syntactic differences between children with and without DLD and document syntactic growth as children age.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25822675.

Sentence production and sentence repetition in autistic adolescents and young adults: Linguistic sensitivity to finiteness-marking

Purpose

Despite the clinical utility of sentence production and sentence repetition to identify language impairment in autism, little is known about the extent to which these tasks are sensitive to potential dialectal variation. One promising method is strategic scoring (Oetting et al., 2016), which has good clinical utility for identifying language impairment in nonautistic school-age children across dialects of English. This report applies strategic scoring to analyze sentence repetition and sentence production in autistic adolescents and adults.

Method

Thirty-one diverse autistic adolescents and adults with language impairment (ALI; n=15) and without language impairment (ASD; n=16) completed the Formulated Sentences and Recalling Sentences subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-5th Ed (Wiig et al., 2013). Descriptive analyses and regression evaluated effects of scoring condition, group, and scoring condition by group on outcomes, as well as group differences in finiteness-marking across utterances and morphosyntactic structures.

Results

Strategic and unmodified item-level scores were essentially constant on both subtests and significantly lower in the ALI than the ASD group. Only group predicted item-level scores. Group differences were limited to: percent grammatical utterances on Formulated Sentences and percent production of overt structures combined on Sentence Repetition (ALI < ASD).

Discussion

Findings support the feasibility of strategic scoring for sentence production and sentence repetition to identify language impairment and indicate that potential dialectal variation in finiteness-marking did not confound outcomes in this sample. To better understand the clinical utility of strategic scoring, replication with a larger sample varying in age and comparisons with dialect-sensitive measures are needed.

Models of Variable Form Acquisition Should be Informed by Cross-Dialect Studies of Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)

Shin and Mill (2021) propose four steps children go through when learning variable form use. Although I applaud Shin and Miller's focus on morphosyntactic variation, their accrual of evidence is post hoc and selective. Fortunately, Shin and Miller recognize this and encourage tests of their ideas. In support of their work, I share data from children with and without DLD within AAE and SWE to promote these child profiles and dialectal varieties in future studies.

The Acquisition of Black Language by Spanish-Speaking Preschoolers: A Community-Based Sociolinguistic Approach to Language Assessment

PURPOSE

The purpose of this case series was to demonstrate a community-based sociolinguistic approach to language sample analysis (LSA) for the evaluation of Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers acquiring Black language (BL). As part of a comprehensive bilingual speech-language evaluation, we examined sociolinguistic variables in the context of the children's English language samples. Specific emphasis is placed on sociolinguistic information to account for all language(s) and dialect(s) in each child's environment, BL feature patterns, and appropriate scoring procedures for characterizing language use.

METHOD

This case series includes four monolingual English-speaking and four bilingual Spanish-English-speaking 4-year-olds in a linguistically diverse preschool program. Play samples were collected from each child and coded for morphosyntactic features across three categories: BL, Spanish-Influenced English, and shared. Measures derived from the language samples include percent grammatical utterances, mean length of utterance in words, and number of different words. The children's language is characterized within a community-based sociolinguistic approach that combines three culturally responsive methods for assessment found in the speech-language pathology literature in addition to a novel sociolinguistic questionnaire.

RESULTS

We explain how conducting LSA using a community-based sociolinguistic approach yields diagnostically relevant information that is pertinent to conducting a comprehensive and accurate evaluation of preschoolers in linguistically diverse settings without the use of standardized assessments.

CONCLUSION

A community-based sociolinguistic approach to LSA is a useful procedure for mitigating misdiagnosis in preschoolers reared in linguistically diverse environments.

Grammaticality Judgments of Tense and Agreement by Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder Across Dialects of English

PURPOSE

Within General American English (GAE), the grammar weaknesses of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have been documented with many tasks, including grammaticality judgments. Recently, Vaughn et al. replicated this finding with a judgment task targeting tense and agreement (T/A) structures for children who spoke African American English (AAE), a dialect that contains a greater variety of T/A forms than GAE. In the current study, we further tested this finding for children who spoke Southern White English (SWE), another dialect that contains a greater variety of T/A forms than GAE but less variety than AAE. Then, combining the SWE and AAE data, we explored the effects of a child's dialect, clinical group, and production of T/A forms on the children's judgments.

METHOD

The data were from 88 SWE-speaking children (DLD, n = 18; typically developing [TD], n = 70) and 91 AAE-speaking children (DLD, n = 34; TD, n = 57) previously studied. As in the AAE study, the SWE judgment data were examined both with A' scores and percentages of acceptability, with comparisons between dialects made on percentages of acceptability.

RESULTS

As in AAE, the SWE DLD group had significantly different A' scores and percentages of acceptability than the SWE TD group for all sentence types, including those with T/A structures. Additional analyses indicated that the judgments of the TD but not the DLD groups showed dialect effects. Except for verbal -s, overt production and grammaticality judgments were correlated for the TD but not for the DLD groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Children with DLD across dialects of English present grammar difficulties that affect their ability to make judgments about sentences. More cross-dialectal research is needed to better understand the grammatical weaknesses of childhood DLD, especially for structures such as verbal -s that are expressed differently across dialects of English.

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.

Grammaticality Judgments of Tense and Agreement by Child Speakers of African American English: Effects of Clinical Status, Surface Form, and Grammatical Structure

PURPOSE

We examined the grammaticality judgments of tense and agreement (T/A) structures by children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) within African American English (AAE). The children's judgments of T/A forms were also compared to their judgments of two control forms and, for some analyses, examined by surface form (i.e., overt, zero) and type of structure (i.e., BE, past tense, verbal -s).

METHOD

The judgments were from 91 AAE-speaking kindergartners (DLD = 34; typically developing = 57), elicited using items from the Rice/Wexler Test of Early Grammatical Impairment. The data were analyzed twice, once using General American English as the reference and A' scores and once using AAE as the reference and percentages of acceptability.

RESULTS

Although the groups differed using both metrics, the percentages of acceptability tied the DLD T/A deficit to judgments of the overt forms, while also revealing a general DLD weakness judging sentences that are ungrammatical in AAE. Judgments of the overt T/A forms by both groups correlated with their productions of these forms and their language test scores, and both groups showed structure-specific form preferences ("is": overt > zero vs. verbal -s: overt = zero).

CONCLUSION

The findings demonstrate the utility of grammaticality judgment tasks for revealing weaknesses in T/A within AAE-speaking children with DLD, while also calling for more studies using AAE as the dialect reference when designing stimuli and coding systems.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22534588.

Identifying Racial and Socioeconomic Biases in New Jersey Special Education Eligibility

PURPOSE

This study aimed to determine if eligibility for special education and related services (SERS) in New Jersey (NJ) is biased based on a child's racial/cultural background or socioeconomic status (SES).

METHOD

A Qualtrics survey was administered to NJ child study team personnel including speech-language pathologists, school psychologists, learning disabilities teacher-consultants, and school social workers. Participants were presented with four hypothetical case studies, which differed only in racial/cultural background or SES. Participants were asked to make SERS eligibility recommendations about each case study.

RESULTS

An aligned rank transform analysis of variance test found a significant effect of race on SERS eligibility decisions, F(2, 272) = 2.391, p = .093. Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests further yielded that Black children had significantly higher levels of SERS ineligibility at the high-SES (z = -2.648, p = .008) and mid-SES (z = -2.660, p = .008) levels compared to White children. When comparing SES levels within race using Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests, White low-SES children had significantly higher levels of ineligibility for SERS compared to White high-SES children (z = -2.008, p = .045). These results suggest that Black children from high/mid SES are treated comparably to White children from low SES; these groups are more likely to be found ineligible for SERS compared to peers.

CONCLUSIONS

Both race and SES play a role in SERS eligibility decisions in NJ. Students who are Black and/or from low-SES households are at risk for facing significant biases in schools that influence their educational placements.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22185820.

Overt Subject Pronoun Use in Switch-Reference Contexts in Child Spanish Developmental Language Disorder: A Discriminant Function Analysis

PURPOSE

Our study analyzes probabilistic constraints on subject expression previously found in adult Spanish in the speech of typically developing (TD) Spanish-speaking children and children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Previous work shows that children with DLD produce fewer overt subjects than typically developing children, and that the latter acquire constraints on subject expression as they age into adolescence. Our study complements these findings and provides further substance to the grammatical profile of children whose morphosyntactic development diverges from that of typically developing children.

METHOD

Data are drawn from unstructured spontaneous production data from a sample of 19 monolingual Mexican, Spanish-speaking children, collected in 2006-2007. This sample includes 19 children diagnosed with DLD and 19 age-matched, typically developing children. We collected all instances of finite verbs that either did or could have occurred with a subject personal pronoun uttered by the child participants and coded them for several factors including tense-mood-aspect, switch reference, and person and number.

RESULTS

We find that children with DLD produce fewer overt subject pronouns in switch reference contexts than typically developing controls, with a significant interaction of group and switch reference. Furthermore, a discriminant function analysis shows that overt pronoun use in switch reference contexts can form part of a useful diagnostic discriminant function, with high levels of sensitivity and specificity.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, we find important differences between TD Spanish-speaking children and those diagnosed with DLD regarding rates of overt subjects and sensitivity to the probabilistic constraint of switch reference. This finding contributes to our understanding of the morphosyntactic profiles of children with DLD, as well as the utility of factors such as switch reference in the identification of language disorders.

Evaluating Different Scoring Systems for a Picture Description Task Among Preschool Children Who Speak African American English

PURPOSE

Measures of grammatical accuracy are effective measures of children's language skills. However, many measures, such as percent grammatical utterances, were developed for children who speak General American English (GAE) and, therefore, may not be appropriate for students who speak other dialects. This study examines different scoring systems for a picture description task to explore the impact of different systems for children who speak African American English (AAE).

METHOD

Eighteen preschool-age children who speak AAE completed a play-based language sample and a picture description task. The Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn) was calculated for the play-based language samples and used as the reference measure. The picture description task was scored using four scoring systems: an expansive AAE scoring system, a GAE scoring system, and two strategic scoring systems. Scores were compared for each scoring system, and correlations between IPSyn scores and picture description scores were conducted.

RESULTS

Scores on the picture description task were highest in the expansive AAE scoring system, followed by scores in the strategic scoring systems, all of which were higher than scores in the GAE scoring system. There was a significant correlation between IPSyn scores and picture description scores when using the GAE scoring system and the strategic scoring systems, but not when using the expansive AAE scoring system.

CONCLUSIONS

Different scoring systems affect AAE-speaking preschoolers' scores on measures of grammatical accuracy, and the use of an expansive AAE scoring system, based on lists of nonmainstream features, may diminish the ability to differentiate between children with different ability levels. Future research is needed to refine scoring systems and to explore the validity of different scoring systems for detecting differences between preschoolers who speak AAE, with and without developmental language disorder.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21498618.

Bidialectal and monodialectal differences in morphosyntactic processing of AAE and MAE: Evidence from ERPs and acceptability judgments

INTRODUCTION

African American English (AAE) has never been examined through neurophysiological methods in investigations of dual-language variety processing. This study examines whether contrastive and non-contrastive morphosyntactic features in sentences with and without AAE constructions elicit differing neural and/or behavioral responses in bidialectal speakers of AAE and Mainstream American English (MAE), compared to monodialectal MAE speakers. We compared electroencephalographic (EEG) and behavioral (grammatical acceptability judgment) data to determine whether two dialects are processed similarly to distinct languages, as seen in studies of bilingual codeswitching where the P600 event related potential (ERP) has been elicited when processing a switch between language varieties.

METHODS

Bidialectal AAE-MAE speakers (n = 15) and monodialectal MAE speakers (n = 12) listened to sentences in four conditions, while EEG was recorded to evaluate time-locked brain responses to grammatical differences between sentence types. The maintained verb form in the present progressive tense sentences (e.g., The black cat lap/s the milk) was the morphosyntactic feature of interest for comparing P600 responses as an indicator of error detection. Following each trial, responses and reaction times to a grammatical acceptability judgment task were collected and compared.

RESULTS

Findings indicate distinct neurophysiological profiles between bidialectal and monodialectal speakers. Monodialectal speakers demonstrated a P600 response within 500-800ms following presentation of an AAE morphosyntax feature, indicating error detection; this response was not seen in the bidialectal group. Control sentences with non-contrasting grammar revealed no differences in ERP responses between groups. Behaviorally, bidialectal speakers showed greater acceptance of known dialectal variation and error (non-contrastive) sentence types compared to the monodialectal group.

CONCLUSIONS

ERP and behavioral responses are presented as preliminary evidence of dual-language representation in bidialectal speakers. Increased consideration of AAE language processing would enhance equity in the study of language at large, improving the work of clinicians, researchers, educators and policymakers alike.

Comparison of the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test Risk Subtest to Two Other Screeners for Low-Income Prekindergartners Who Speak African American English and Live in the Urban South

Purpose We compared the Risk subtest of the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test (DELV-Screening Test Risk) with two other screeners when administered to low-income prekindergartners (pre-K) who spoke African American English (AAE) in the urban South. Method Participants were 73 children (six with a communication disorder and 67 without) enrolled in Head Start or a publicly funded pre-K in an urban Southern city. All children completed the DELV-Screening Test Risk, the Fluharty Preschool Speech and Language Screening Test-Second Edition (FLUHARTY-2), and the Washington and Craig Language Screener (WCLS). Test order was counterbalanced across participants. Results DELV-Screening Test Risk error scores were higher than those reported for its standardization sample, and scores on the other screeners were lower than their respective standardization/testing samples. The 52% fail rate of the DELV-Screening Test Risk did not differ significantly from the 48% rate of the WCLS. Fail rates of the FLUHARTY-2 ranged from 34% to 75%, depending on the quotient considered and whether scoring was modified for dialect. Although items and subtests assumed to measure similar constructs were correlated to each other, the three screeners led to inconsistent pass/fail outcomes for 44% of the children. Conclusions Like other screeners, the DELV-Screening Test Risk subtest may lead to high fail rates for low-income pre-K children who speak AAE in the urban South. Inconsistent outcomes across screeners underscore the critical need for more study and development of screeners within the field.

Language Variation in the Writing of African American Students: Factors Predicting Reading Achievement

Purpose This study aims to examine the predictive relation between measures obtained from African American students' written narrative language samples and reading achievement, as measured by standardized academic assessments. Method Written language samples were elicited from 207 African American students in Grades 1-8. The samples were examined for morphosyntactic variations from standardized written Generalized American English (GAE). These variations were categorized as either (a) specific to African American English (AAE) or (b) neutral across AAE and standardized written GAE (i.e., considered ungrammatical both in AAE and in standardized written GAE). Structural equation modeling was employed to then examine the predictive relation between the density of AAE-specific forms in students' writing and their performance on standardized assessments of literacy and reading vocabulary. This relation was examined while accounting for the density of dialect-neutral morphosyntactic forms, reported family income, age, and written sample length. Results The written samples were highly variable in terms of morphosyntax. Younger students and those from lower income homes tended to use AAE-specific forms at higher rates. However, the density of AAE-specific forms did not significantly predict standardized literacy scores or reading vocabulary after accounting for dialect-neutral variations, income, and sample length. Conclusions These results support the ongoing need to better understand the language, literacy, and overall academic development of students from all backgrounds. It may be essential to focus on dialect-neutral language forms (i.e., morphosyntactic forms that are consistent across both AAE and standardized written GAE) in written samples to maximize assessment validity across students who speak varying dialects of English. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16879558.

English BESA Morphosyntax Performance Among Spanish-English Bilinguals Who Use African American English

Purpose This study examined the use of African American English (AAE) among a group of young Latinx bilingual children and the accuracy of the English Morphosyntax subtest of the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA) in classifying these children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Children (N = 81) between the ages of 4;0 and 7;1 (years;months) completed a narrative task and the BESA Morphosyntax subtest. We identified DLD based on four reference measures. We compared specific dialectal features used by children with DLD and their typically developing peers. We also conducted an overall analysis of the BESA subtest and subsequent item-level analyses to determine if particular items were more likely to contribute to the correct classification of the participants. Results Children with DLD used three AAE forms in their narrative samples (subject-verb agreement, zero copula/auxiliary, or zero past tense) more frequently than their typically developing peers. Area-under-the-curve estimates for the cloze, sentence repetition, and composite scores of the BESA indicated that the assessment identified children with DLD in the sample with good sensitivity. Item analysis indicated that the majority of items (84%) significantly differentiated typically developing children and children with DLD. Conclusions The BESA English Morphosyntax subtest appears to be a valid tool for the identification of DLD in children exposed to AAE and Spanish. We provide practical implications and suggestions for future research addressing the identification of DLD among children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

The Cultural and Diagnostic Appropriateness of Standardized Assessments for Dual Language Learners: A Focus on Jamaican Preschoolers

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the appropriateness of standardized assessments of expressive grammar and vocabulary in a sample of preschool-age dual language learners (DLLs) who use Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. Adult models from the same linguistic community as these children were used to inform culturally and linguistically appropriate interpretation of children's responses to a standardized assessment. Method JC-English-speaking preschoolers (n = 176) and adults (n = 33) completed the Word Structure and Expressive Vocabulary subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-Second Edition. Adults' responses were used to develop an adapted scoring procedure that considered the influence of JC linguistic features on responses. DLLs' responses scored using the standard English and adapted JC procedures were compared. Results JC-English DLLs and adults used similar linguistic structures in response to subtest questions. DLLs' scores differed significantly from the standardized sample on both subtests. Preschoolers received higher raw and corresponding standard scores with adapted scoring compared to standard scoring. Adapted scoring that made use of adult models yielded high classification accuracy at a rate of 93.8% for Word Structure and 92.1% for Expressive Vocabulary. Conclusions Adapting standardized assessment scoring procedures using adult models may offer an ecologically valid approach to working with DLL preschoolers that can support a more accurate assessment of language functioning. These findings suggest that the use of standardized assessments for bilingual JC-English speakers requires a culturally responsive approach. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14403026.

Marking of Tense and Agreement in Language Samples by Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment in African American English and Southern White English: Evaluation of Scoring Approaches and Cut Scores Across Structures

Purpose As follow-up to a previous study of probes, we evaluated the marking of tense and agreement (T/A) in language samples by children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing controls in African American English (AAE) and Southern White English (SWE) while also examining the clinical utility of different scoring approaches and cut scores across structures. Method The samples came from 70 AAE- and 36 SWE-speaking kindergartners, evenly divided between the SLI and typically developing groups. The structures were past tense, verbal -s, auxiliary BE present, and auxiliary BE past. The scoring approaches were unmodified, modified, and strategic; these approaches varied in the scoring of forms classified as nonmainstream and other. The cut scores were dialect-universal and dialect-specific. Results Although low numbers of some forms limited the analyses, the results generally supported those previously found for the probes. The children produced a large and diverse inventory of mainstream and nonmainstream T/A forms within the samples; strategic scoring led to the greatest differences between the clinical groups while reducing effects of the children's dialects; and dialect-specific cut scores resulted in better clinical classification accuracies, with measures of past tense leading to the highest levels of classification accuracy. Conclusions For children with SLI, the findings contribute to studies that call for a paradigm shift in how children's T/A deficits are assessed and treated across dialects. A comparison of findings from the samples and probes indicates that probes may be the better task for identifying T/A deficits in children with SLI in AAE and SWE. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13564709.

Tense Marking in the Kindergarten Population: Testing the Bimodal Distribution Hypothesis

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore whether evidence for a bimodal distribution of tense marking, previously documented in clinically referred samples, exists in a population-based sample of kindergarten children from a rural county in Tennessee. Method A measure of tense marking, the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (TEGI) Screening Test, was individually administered to consented kindergarten students (N = 153) across three elementary schools in a single school district. The consented children constituted 73% of kindergartners in the district. Cluster analysis was used to evaluate the number and composition of latent classes that best fit the distribution of the TEGI Screening Test scores. Results Analysis of the scores revealed a distribution that deviated significantly from normality. Cluster analyses (Ward's, k-means, single linkage) revealed a two-cluster solution as the best fitting model. The very large effect-size difference in mean TEGI Screening Test score between the two clusters (d = 4.77) provides validation of an identifiable boundary delineating typical from atypical tense marking in this sample of kindergartners. The difference in tense marking across the two clusters was not attributable to child chronological age. The percentage of the sample comprising the low-performing cluster aligns with specific language impairment and developmental language disorder prevalence estimates. Conclusion Additional demonstrations of a bimodal distribution of tense marking in future studies with carefully defined samples could strengthen the clinical marker evidence and utility of this linguistic feature.

Language Use and Development in Third-Person Singular Contexts: Assessment Implications

Purpose The purpose of this assessment-focused clinical focus article is to increase familiarity with African American English (AAE)-speaking children's pattern of language use in third-person singular contexts and to discuss implications for speech-language assessments of developing AAE-speaking children. Method The clinical focus draws on descriptive case study data from four typically developing child speakers of AAE who are between the ages of 3 and 5 years. The children's data from three different sources-sentence imitation, story retell, and play-based language samples-were subjected to linguistic analyses. Results The three sources of linguistic data offered different insights into the children's production of -s and other linguistic patterns in third-person singular contexts. Conclusions This study underscores the importance of exploring developing child AAE from a descriptive approach to reveal different types of information about patterns of morphological marking in different linguistic contexts, which is crucial in assessing developing AAE. Implications for language assessment are discussed.

Diagnosis of Developmental Language Disorder in Research Studies

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which researchers in the field of developmental language disorder are utilizing validated methods to diagnose their research participants. Method We examined 90 research articles published from 2015 to 2019 that included English-speaking participants from the United States who were identified as having a developmental language disorder or specific language impairment. From these articles, we identified the tests and measures used to identify participants and classify them as healthy or impaired. We then consulted the test manuals and the literature to find information on sensitivity and specificity of the test and the evidence-based cut score that maximized identification accuracy. Results Of the 90 articles examined, 38 (42%) were found to reflect validated diagnostic methods, and 51 (58%) did not. Conclusion Our results illustrate that validated methods are used less than half of the time even by those who should have a high level of expertise and despite calls for increasing scientific rigor in research practices.

Survey of assessment and intervention practices for students who speak African American English

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) working with students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are encouraged to be "familiar with nondiscriminatory testing and dynamic assessment procedures" (ASHA, 2003). Little is known, however, about the extent to which SLPs implement these methods into their clinical practice. The current study explores the assessment and intervention practices used by SLPs in two states in the US for students who speak African American English (AAE), including the types and frequency of clinical practices. 247 SLPs completed an online survey regarding clinical practices for students who speak AAE as well as a questionnaire regarding their knowledge of the linguistic features of AAE. Half of SLPs reported using modified or alternative assessment practices the majority of the time or some of the time for students who speak AAE; however, SLPs reported using modified or alternative treatment practices less often. Modified scoring of standardized assessments and selecting different intervention strategies were the most commonly reported clinical practices. Knowledge of linguistic features of AAE was a significant predictor of the frequency with which SLPs report implementing modified or alternative assessment and intervention practices and SLPs with the highest levels of knowledge of AAE utilize different clinical practices than those with lower levels of knowledge of AAE. Additional information is needed about the most effective clinical practices for students who speak AAE and the barriers SLPs face to implementing nondiscriminatory clinical practices.