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

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

PURPOSE

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

METHOD

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

RESULTS

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

CONCLUSIONS

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

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

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

Phonemic and pitch variability in bilingual preschoolers: A comparison of Jamaican Creole and English

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to investigate the cross-linguistic influences of Jamaican Creole (JC) and English on phonemic and vocal development in bilingual JC-English-speaking preschoolers.

METHOD

Sixteen typically developing children (12 females, M = 4 years; 4 months) completed the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation in Phonology Word Inconsistency Assessment subtest in JC and in English. Acoustic measures of voice onset time (VOT), VOT variability (VOT SD), mean fundamental frequency (fo), and fo variability (fo SD) were extracted from each target word. Prevoicing was noted. Mixed models and regression models were analysed to understand the patterns of acoustic measures in each language, and the relationship between phonemic and vocal variability, respectively.

RESULT

Analyses showed a significant effect of language on fo SD, wherein SD was greater in English than JC. JC spoken (percentage) was a significant positive predictor of VOT SD for voiced (short lag) productions. There was no relationship between phonemic and vocal variability measures.

CONCLUSION

Greater fo SD in English may be due to linguistic fo differences and speaking environment. Variability for voiced VOT is likely due to the continued maturation of vocal and articulatory control when children are developing adult-like productions, though longitudinal studies are needed.

Using language sample analyses across English dialects: A case-based approach for preschoolers

This study compared language samples from typically developing 4-year-olds who spoke African American English (AAE), Jamaican English (JE), or Mainstream American English (MAE) to assess the value of using language sample analysis (LSA) measures for characterising language use across dialects of English. Specific LSA metrics included mean length of utterance (MLU) in morphemes and in words, the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn), Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) and measures of lexical diversity. Children demonstrated diverse linguistic patterns across dialects, but a Kruskal-Wallis H test did not reveal significant differences in scores obtained through LSA measures. Notably, the IPSyn captured morphosyntactic structures in each category across dialects where prior research has highlighted limitations. This preliminary study uses a case-based approach to illustrate the applicability of LSAs in describing linguistic variations across children who speak different dialects of English. Moreover, the findings from this study underscore the potential use of LSAs in describing linguistic patterns to support the characterisation of communication profiles for culturally and linguistically diverse children.

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

PURPOSE

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

METHOD

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

RESULTS

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

CONCLUSIONS

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

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

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

Introduction to the Research Symposium on Bilingualism Forum

PURPOSE

The purpose of this introduction is to provide an overview of the articles contained within this research forum of the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Each of these articles is based upon presentations from the 2022 ASHA Research Symposium.