Bilingualism and specific language impairment in children attending language units

Language gains in 4-6-year-old children with developmental language disorder and the relation with language profile, severity, multilingualism and non-verbal cognition

BACKGROUND

Early and effective treatment for children with developmental language disorder (DLD) is important. Although a growing body of research shows the effects of interventions at the group level, clinicians observe large individual differences in language growth, and differences in outcomes across language domains. A systematic understanding of how child characteristics contribute to changes in language skills is still lacking.

AIMS

To assess changes in the language domains: expressive morphosyntax; receptive and expressive vocabulary; and comprehension, in children in special needs education for DLD. To explore if differences in language gains between children are related to child characteristics: language profile; severity of the disorder; being raised mono- or multilingually; and cognitive ability.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

We extracted data from school records of 154 children (4-6 years old) in special needs education offering a language and communication-stimulating educational environment, including speech and language therapy. Changes in language were measured by comparing the scores on standardized language tests at the beginning and the end of a school year. Next, we related language change to language profile (receptive-expressive versus expressive-only disorders), severity (initial scores), growing up mono- and multilingually, and children's reported non-verbal IQ scores.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Overall, the children showed significant improvements in expressive morphosyntax, expressive vocabulary and language comprehension. Baseline scores and gains were lowest for expressive morphosyntax. Differences in language gains between children with receptive-expressive disorders and expressive-only disorders were not significant. There was more improvement in children with lower initial scores. There were no differences between mono- and multilingual children, except for expressive vocabulary. There was no evidence of a relation between non-verbal IQ scores and language growth.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

Children with DLD in special needs education showed gains in language performance during one school year. There was, however, little change in morphosyntactic scores, which supports previous studies concluding that poor morphosyntax is a persistent characteristic of DLD. Our results indicate that it is important to include all children with DLD in intervention: children with receptive-expressive and expressive disorders; mono- and multilingual children, and children with high, average and low non-verbal IQ scores. We did not find negative relations between these child factors and changes in language skills.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on the subject Intervention studies indicate that intervention can be effective, but not for all children with DLD, and not in all language domains. Longitudinal studies on language development show stable growth patterns in children with DLD at the group level. A systematic understanding of how child characteristics contribute to changes in language skills is still lacking. What this paper adds to existing knowledge In this study, we report on the language gains of a cohort of 154 children with DLD (4-6 years old), in a special education setting for children with language disorders. Our sample includes children with receptive-expressive disorders and expressive-only disorders, and monolingual as well as multilingual children. Our results show that children's language skills improved. The co-normed tests we used revealed that the children had much lower growth in morphosyntax than in the other language domains. Language gains between children with receptive-expressive and expressive-only language disorders did not differ, children with lower initial test scores showed more improvement than children with higher initial scores, multilingual children showed more gains in expressive vocabulary than monolingual children, and there was no effect of non-verbal IQ on change in language scores. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The results suggest that catching up on language is possible for children with DLD. It is important to include all children with DLD in intervention: mono- and multilingual children; children with receptive-expressive and expressive disorders; and children with high, average and low non-verbal IQ scores. We did not find negative relations between these child factors and changes in language skills. The limited growth in morphosyntax compared with other linguistic areas warrants the attention of both practitioners and researchers, with a particular focus on the implementation of research findings in clinical practice.

Annual Research Review: The transdiagnostic revolution in neurodevelopmental disorders

Practitioners frequently use diagnostic criteria to identify children with neurodevelopmental disorders and to guide intervention decisions. These criteria also provide the organising framework for much of the research focussing on these disorders. Study design, recruitment, analysis and theory are largely built on the assumption that diagnostic criteria reflect an underlying reality. However, there is growing concern that this assumption may not be a valid and that an alternative transdiagnostic approach may better serve our understanding of this large heterogeneous population of young people. This review draws on important developments over the past decade that have set the stage for much-needed breakthroughs in understanding neurodevelopmental disorders. We evaluate contemporary approaches to study design and recruitment, review the use of data-driven methods to characterise cognition, behaviour and neurobiology, and consider what alternative transdiagnostic models could mean for children and families. This review concludes that an overreliance on ill-fitting diagnostic criteria is impeding progress towards identifying the barriers that children encounter, understanding underpinning mechanisms and finding the best route to supporting them.

What Machine Learning Can Tell Us About the Role of Language Dominance in the Diagnostic Accuracy of German LITMUS Non-word and Sentence Repetition Tasks

The present study investigates the performance of 21 monolingual and 56 bilingual children aged 5;6-9;0 on German LITMUS-sentence-repetition (SRT; Hamann et al., 2013) and non-word-repetition-tasks (NWRT; Grimm et al., 2014), which were constructed in accordance with the LITMUS-principles (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings; Armon-Lotem et al., 2015). Both tasks incorporate phonologically and syntactically complex structures shown to be cross-linguistically challenging for children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and aim at minimizing bias against bilingual children while still being indicative of the presence of language impairment across language combinations (see Marinis and Armon-Lotem, 2015; for sentence-repetition; Chiat, 2015 for non-word-repetition). Given the great variability in bilingual language exposure and the potential effect of language experience on language performance in bilingual children, we examined whether background variables related to bilingualism, particularly, the degree language dominance as measured by relative amount of use and exposure, could compromise the diagnostic accuracy of the German LITMUS-SRT and NWRT. We further investigated whether a combination of the two tasks provides better diagnostic accuracy and helps avoid cases of misdiagnosis. To address this, we used an unsupervised machine learning algorithm, the Partitioning-Around-Medoids (PAM, Kaufman and Rousseeuw, 2009), for deriving a clinical category for the children as ± language-impaired based on their performance scores on SRT and NWRT (in isolation and combined) while withholding information about their clinical status based on standardized assessment in their first (home language, L1) and second language (societal language, L2). Subsequently, we calculated diagnostic accuracy and used regression analysis to investigate which background variables (age of onset, length of exposure, degree of language dominance, socio-economic-status, and risk factors for SLI) best explained clinical-group-membership yielded from the PAM-analysis based on the children's NWRT and SRT performance scores. Results show that although language-dominance clearly influences the performance of bilingual typically developing children, especially in the SRT, the diagnostic accuracy of the tools is not compromised by language dominance: while risk factors for SLI were significant predictors for clinical group membership in all models, language dominance did not contribute at all to explaining clinical cluster membership as typically developing or SLI based on any of the combinations of the SRT and NWRT variables. Additionally, results confirm that a combination of SRT scored by correct target structure and the structurally more complex language-dependent part of the NWRT yields better diagnostic accuracy than single measures and is only sensitive to risk factors for SLI and not to dominance levels or SES.

German dative case marking in monolingual and simultaneous bilingual children with and without SLI

This study explores the role of German dative case marking in disentangling effects of specific language impairment (SLI) and bilingualism. Longitudinal data of German-Italian bilingual children with SLI (N = 3) is compared to cross-sectional data (N = 42) of monolingual and bilingual typically developing (TD) children and monolingual children with SLI (ages four and seven). Spontaneous and elicited speech data is analysed in terms of target-like dative case marking in German. Results show differences between the acquisition of case marking of pronouns and of full Determiner Phrases (DPs). Regarding the target-like dative case marking in total, there were no differences found between bilingual TD, monolingual and bilingual children with SLI by the age of four. They demonstrated a similar delay when compared to monolingual TD children. By the age of seven, however, bilingual TD children 'catch up' with their monolingual peers. Children with SLI do not master the acquisition of dative case marking by this age. Cumulative effects of bilingualism and SLI were not found neither in younger nor in older bilingual children. These findings underline the importance of further research on linguistic markers and of distinguishing between effects of SLI and bilingualism.

Finnish-born children of immigrants are more likely to be diagnosed with developmental disorders related to speech and language, academic skills and coordination

AIM

We examined the association between having at least one parent born abroad and being diagnosed with a developmental disorder related to speech and language, academic skills or coordination.

METHODS

This nested case-control study was based on Finnish population records for 1996-2007. Cases from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register were diagnosed with developmental disorders of speech and language, academic skills and coordination by the end of 2012. We identified 28 192 cases and 106 616 matched controls.

RESULTS

Children were more likely to be diagnosed with developmental disorders if they had an immigrant mother than children with two Finnish-born parents, with an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 1.3 and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of 1.2-1.4, an immigrant father (aOR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1-1.3) or two immigrant parents (aOR 1.5, 95% CI 1.3-1.6). The level of development of the parental country of origin was not associated with receiving a diagnosis.

CONCLUSION

Children of immigrant parents were more likely to be diagnosed with developmental disorders and the association was strongest with regard to speech and language disorders. There were similar adjusted odds ratios for mothers, fathers and both parents. The development level of the country of origin was irrelevant.

Practitioner Review: Multilingualism and neurodevelopmental disorders - an overview of recent research and discussion of clinical implications

BACKGROUND

Language and communication skills are essential aspects of child development, which are often disrupted in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Cutting edge research in psycholinguistics suggests that multilingualism has potential to influence social, linguistic and cognitive development. Thus, multilingualism has implications for clinical assessment, diagnostic formulation, intervention and support offered to families. We present a systematic review and synthesis of the effects of multilingualism for children with neurodevelopmental disorders and discuss clinical implications.

METHODS

We conducted systematic searches for studies on multilingualism in neurodevelopmental disorders. Keywords for neurodevelopmental disorders were based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition categories as follows; Intellectual Disabilities, Communication Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Specific Learning Disorder, Motor Disorders, Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders. We included only studies based on empirical research and published in peer-reviewed journals.

RESULTS

Fifty studies met inclusion criteria. Thirty-eight studies explored multilingualism in Communication Disorders, 10 in ASD and two in Intellectual Disability. No studies on multilingualism in Specific Learning Disorder or Motor Disorders were identified. Studies which found a disadvantage for multilingual children with neurodevelopmental disorders were rare, and there appears little reason to assume that multilingualism has negative effects on various aspects of functioning across a range of conditions. In fact, when considering only those studies which have compared a multilingual group with developmental disorders to a monolingual group with similar disorders, the findings consistently show no adverse effects on language development or other aspects of functioning. In the case of ASD, a positive effect on communication and social functioning has been observed.

CONCLUSIONS

There is little evidence to support the widely held view that multilingual exposure is detrimental to the linguistic or social development of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. However, we also note that the available pool of studies is small and the number of methodologically high quality studies is relatively low. We discuss implications of multilingualism for clinical management of neurodevelopmental disorders, and discuss possible directions for future research.

Bilingualism, Language Disorders and Intercultural Families in Contemporary Italy: Family Relations, Transmission of Language and Representations of Otherness

This study aims to show how language disorders in children affect language transmission and the mixedness experience in intercultural families. To this end, it adopts a qualitative method of study based on the administration of ad hoc interviews to intercultural couples who consulted our Child Neuropsychiatry Service because of language disorders in their children. One of the main consequences, when the child of an intercultural couple presents a language disorder and a diagnostic process has to be initiated, may be interruption of the transmission of the second language, especially if it is the mother's language. The decision to do this, which may be taken on the advice of teachers and health professionals, but also because the parents themselves often attribute their child's language disorder to his bilingual condition, affects not only the relationship between the mother and her child, but also processes in the construction of parenthood and in the structuring of the child's personality and the plurality of his affiliations. A clear understanding of how the dialectic between the categories of "alien" and "familiar" is managed in these contemporary families, which have to reckon with the condition of otherness, is crucial for psychiatrists and psychotherapists working in settings in which cultural difference is an issue to consider.

The influence of bilingualism on speech production: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Children who are bilingual and have speech sound disorder are likely to be under-referred, possibly due to confusion about typical speech acquisition in bilingual children.

AIMS

To investigate what is known about the impact of bilingualism on children's acquisition of speech in English to facilitate the identification and treatment of bilingual children with speech sound disorder.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

A systematic review of studies from the last 50 years was conducted. Studies investigating speech acquisition in bilingual infants and children (where one language was English) were identified through searching seven electronic databases, bibliographies of relevant articles and e-mailing authors. Sixty-six studies investigating bilingual speech production met inclusion criteria, with 53 describing typically developing children and 13 describing children with speech sound disorder. The 66 studies were analysed thematically and summarized in terms of methods, key findings and underlying theories.

MAIN CONTRIBUTION

There was limited evidence to suggest that bilingual children develop speech at a slower rate than their monolingual peers; however, there was evidence for qualitative differences and increased variation in speech production. Nearly all studies provide evidence for transfer between the two phonological and language structures, although the amount of transfer varied between studies. There was evidence of positive and negative transfer of features from the dominant language (L1) to the second language (L2) as well as from L2 to L1. Positive transfer became more evident with increased age and length of exposure to a second language. More recently researchers have moved away from investigating whether there are one or two phonological systems and accept that there are two systems that interact. Interest has shifted to examining how phonological systems interact and to identifying factors that influence interactions. The review revealed a number of inconsistencies in the findings of studies due to differences in methodology, languages investigated and degree of language exposure. Overall, measurement issues were addressed well but most studies provided limited sample information about language experience, schooling and socio-economic status.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

There are differences in speech sound acquisition between monolingual and bilingual children in terms of rate and patterns of error, with both positive and negative transfer occurring in bilingual children.

Assessing bilingual Chinese-English young children in Malaysia using language sample measures

One reason why specific language impairment (SLI) is grossly under-identified in Malaysia is the absence of locally- developed norm-referenced language assessment tools for its multilingual and multicultural population. Spontaneous language samples provide quantitative information for language assessment, and useful descriptive information on child language development in complex language and cultural environments. This research consisted of two studies and investigated the use of measures obtained from English conversational samples among bilingual Chinese-English Malaysian preschoolers. The research found that the language sample measures were sensitive to developmental changes in this population and could identify SLI. The first study examined the relationship between age and mean length of utterance (MLU(w)), lexical diversity (D), and the index of productive syntax (IPSyn) among 52 typically-developing (TD) children aged between 3;4-6;9. Analyses showed a significant linear relationship between age and D (r = .450), the IPsyn (r = .441), and MLU(w) (r = .318). The second study compared the same measures obtained from 10 children with SLI, aged between 3;8-5;11, and their age-matched controls. The children with SLI had significantly shorter MLU(w) and lower IPSyn scores than the TD children. These findings suggest that utterance length and syntax production can be potential clinical markers of SLI in Chinese-English Malaysian children.

The use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure in monolingual and bilingual children with specific language impairment

This study investigates the use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure in the spoken Dutch of monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) and bilingual Frisian-Dutch children with SLI. Both SLI groups appeared to be less efficient in their use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure than the control group (consisting of monolingual typically developing Dutch children matched on mean length of utterance in morphemes) in that they showed significantly more agreement errors as well as a relation between verb agreement structure complexity and omission, a relation that the typically developing children failed to show. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between the monolingual and the bilingual SLI group. These findings indicate that subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure are both affected in SLI, but not more severely in bilinguals than in monolinguals.

Linguistic transfer in bilingual children with specific language impairment

BACKGROUND

In the literature so far the limited research on specific language impairment (SLI) in bilingual children has concentrated on linguistic skills in the first language (L1) and/or the second language (L2) without paying attention to the relations between the two types of skills and to the issue of linguistic transfer.

AIMS

To examine the first and second language proficiency of 75 Turkish-Dutch bilingual children with SLI in the age range between 7 and 11 years living in the Netherlands. A multidimensional perspective on language proficiency was taken in order to assess children's Turkish and Dutch proficiency levels, whereas equivalent tests were used in order to determine language dominance. A second aim was to find out to what extent the children's proficiency in L2 can be predicted from their L1 proficiency, while taking into account their general cognitive abilities.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

The children's performance on a battery of equivalent language ability tests in Turkish and Dutch was compared at three age levels. By means of analyses of variance, it was explored to what extent the factors of language and grade level as well as their interactions were significant. Bivariate correlations and partial correlations with age level partialled out were computed to examine the relationships between L1 and L2 proficiency levels. Moreover, regression analysis was conducted to find out to what extent the variance in general L2 proficiency levels could be explained by children's L1 proficiency, short-term memory and non-verbal intelligence.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Repeated measures analyses showed that the children had generally higher scores on L1 as compared with L2 and that with progression of age the children's scores in L1 and L2 improved. Medium to high correlations were found between phonological memory, phonological awareness, grammatical skills and story comprehension in the two languages. Regression analysis revealed that children's L2 proficiency levels could be explained by their proficiency levels in L1, even after controlling for children's non-verbal intelligence and working memory.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

It is concluded that children's formal linguistic skills in L1 and L2 tend to be related and that their level of L1 proficiency may help to develop linguistic skills in L2.

Influence of additional language learning on first language learning in children with language disorders

BACKGROUND

Multilingualism can bring about various positive outcomes to typically developing children. Its effect on children with language difficulties is not yet clear.

AIM

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of multilingual learning as a medium of instruction (MOI) on first language (L1) acquisition of children with language disorders (LD).

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Nineteen Cantonese-speaking students aged 5;8-6;8 who were diagnosed with LD were recruited from a school that used Putonghua (an alternative Chinese dialect) as the MOI when learning Chinese language and were compared with 18 age-and-gender-matched Cantonese-speaking students with LD from a school that used Cantonese as the MOI when learning Chinese language. All the students also learned English (L2) as a subject at school. Proficiency in Cantonese was tested at the beginning and the end of the semester in Grade One in terms of: (1) grammar, (2) expressive vocabulary, (3) auditory textual comprehension, (4) word definition and (5) narration.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Mixed-model ANOVAs revealed an effect of time on language proficiency indicating positive gains in both groups. Interaction effects between time and group were not significant. There was a trend that children learning Putonghua showed slightly more improvement in auditory textual comprehension.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

Proficiency gains were similar across groups. The study found no evidence that a multilingual learning environment hinders the language proficiency in L1 in students who have LD.

The impact of bilingual language learning on whole-word complexity and segmental accuracy among children aged 18 and 36 months

This study investigates the phonological acquisition of 19 monolingual English children and 21 English?French bilingual children at 18 and 36 months. It contributes to the understanding of age-related changes to phonological complexity and to differences due to bilingual language development. In addition, preliminary normative data is presented for English children and English?French bilingual children. Five measures were targeted to represent a range of indices of phonological development: the phonological mean length of utterance (pMLU) of the adult target, the pMLU produced by the child, the proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP), proportion of consonants correct (PCC), and proportion of whole words correct (PWC). The measures of children's productions showed improvements from 18 to 36 months; however, the rate of change varied across the measures, with PWP improving faster, then PCC, and finally PWC. The results indicated that bilingual children can keep pace with their monolingual peers at both 18 months and 36 months of age, at least in their dominant language. Based on these findings, discrepancies with monolingual phonological development that one might observe in a bilingual child's non-dominant language could be explained by reduced exposure to the language rather than a general slower acquisition of phonology.

Evaluation of speech and language assessment approaches with bilingual children

BACKGROUND

British society is multicultural and multilingual, thus for many children English is not their main or only language. Speech and language therapists are required to assess accurately the speech and language skills of bilingual children if they are suspected of having a disorder. Cultural and linguistic diversity means that a more complex assessment procedure is needed and research suggests that bilingual children are at risk of misdiagnosis. Clinicians have identified a lack of suitable assessment instruments for use with this client group.

AIMS

This paper highlights the challenges of assessing bilingual children and reviews available speech and language assessment procedures and approaches for use with this client group. It evaluates different approaches for assessing bilingual children to identify approaches that may be more appropriate for carrying out assessments effectively.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

This review discusses and evaluates the efficacy of norm-referenced standardized measures, criterion-referenced measures, language-processing measures, dynamic assessment and a sociocultural approach.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

When all named procedures and approaches are compared, the sociocultural approach appears to hold the most promise for accurate assessment of bilingual children. Research suggests that language-processing measures are not effective indicators for identifying speech and language disorders in bilingual children, but further research is warranted. The sociocultural approach encompasses some of the other approaches discussed, including norm-referenced measures, criterion-referenced measures and dynamic assessment.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

The sociocultural approach enables the clinician to interpret results in the light of the child's linguistic and cultural background. In addition, combining approaches mitigates the weaknesses inherent in each approach.

Assessment of second language proficiency in bilingual children with specific language impairment: a clinical perspective

The goal of this study was to examine to what extent the conditions of restricted input of L2 and SLI have an additive impact on language acquisition. Therefore, the Dutch language achievement of 6-, 7-, and 8-year-old bilingual children with SLI was compared with that of typically developing monolingual Dutch children, typically developing bilingual children, and monolingual Dutch children with SLI. Assuming that speaking a language in varying environments involves distinct subskills that can be acquired in differential patterns, the achievement of phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic and textual abilities were assessed separately. For each of these abilities, it was determined to what extent the conditions of restricted input (first vs. second language) and language deficit (typically developing vs. SLI) cause stagnation or a delay in language acquisition. Bilingual children with SLI perform at a lower level than the other groups in almost all aspects of achievement in Dutch. For language tasks related to the mental lexicon and grammar, an additional disadvantage was evidenced as a result of the combination of learning Dutch as second language and having SLI.

Verb morphology as clinical marker of specific language impairment: evidence from first and second language learners

The goal of this study was to search for verb morphology characteristics as possible clinical markers of SLI in Dutch as a first and second language. We also wanted to find out to what extent bilingual children with SLI are additionally disadvantaged in comparison to monolingual children with SLI, on the one hand, and to typically developing bilingual children, on the other hand. Therefore, we examined the use of verb morphology in the narratives of four groups of 7- and 9-year-old children: native Dutch (monolingual) children without SLI, bilingual children without SLI, native Dutch (monolingual) children with SLI, and bilingual children with SLI. The narrative performance in Dutch as measured by mean length of utterance and number of ungrammatical sentences was found to be generally worse for children learning Dutch as a second language, for children suffering from SLI, and for younger children. Furthermore, omission of an agreement marker in the third person singular verb form can be seen as a clinical marker of SLI in both first and second language learners. Bilingual children with SLI were found to be in an additionally disadvantaged position as far as their use of L2 verb morphology.

English past tense use as a clinical marker in older bilingual children with language impairment

This study compared the use of English past tense in a group of Spanish-English bilingual children with language impairment (BLI) to younger groups of bilinguals with typical and atypical language development reported in an earlier study. Ten children with BLI enrolled in 3rd-6th grade participated. Children supplied 12 regular, 12 irregular, and 12 novel past tense verbs on an elicitation task. The results demonstrated that despite 2.5 years of school exposure, older children with BLI still lagged in the production of regular and novel past tense verbs when compared to the younger typically developing (TD) controls. Although the rates of productive errors on irregular verbs increased, the older students nonetheless failed to achieve rates of over-regularization comparable to the younger TD group. These data extend earlier findings regarding the exceptional challenge of past tense use, particularly with respect to finite verb morphology in certain children with BLI. These challenges, combined with similarities between monolingual and bilingual impairment, are largely compatible with a linguistic deficit account.

Repérage par les enseignants des difficultés de langage et de comportement chez 2 059 enfants de 3 ans et demi

BACKGROUND

Several tools have been proposed for screening for specific language impairment and behavioral problems in pre-school children. These disorders are risk factors for later poor school achievement and social life. However, presence of real disorders must be differentiated from environmental factors, such as low educational level of the parents or bilingual family.

METHODS

A 29-item teachers'questionnaire was used for screening for language and behavioral disorders in 2059 nursery-school children aged 3.5 years from 200 nursery-schools of different areas in France.

RESULTS

According to the teachers, difficulties were clearly more frequent in boys than girls, in children from low educational level families, and in children with not-french-speaking parents.

CONCLUSION

The gender of the child and the characteristics of the family play a very important role in the teachers'assessment of a young pre-school child's language and behavior. Longitudinal studies would be required to differentiate the presence of specific disorders, requiring individual intervention, from simple delays due to environmental factors.

The language abilities of bilingual children with Down syndrome

Children with Down syndrome (DS) have cognitive disabilities resulting from trisomy 21. Language-learning difficulties, especially expressive language problems, are an important component of the phenotype of this population. Many individuals with DS are born into bilingual environments. To date, however, there is almost no information available regarding the capacity of these individuals to acquire more than 1 language. The present study compared the language abilities of 8 children with DS being raised bilingually with those of 3 control groups matched on developmental level: monolingual children with DS (n = 14), monolingual typically developing (TD) children (n = 18), and bilingual TD children (n = 11). All children had at least 100 words in their productive vocabularies but a mean length of utterance of less than 3.5. The bilingual children spoke English and 1 other language and were either balanced bilinguals or English-dominant. English testing was completed for all children using the following: the Preschool Language Scale, Third Edition; language sampling; and the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI). Bilingual children were also tested in the second language using a vocabulary comprehension test, the CDI, and language sampling. Results provided evidence of a similar profile of language abilities in bilingual children as has been documented for monolingual children with DS. There was no evidence of a detrimental effect of bilingualism. That is, the bilingual children with DS scored at least as well on all English tests as their monolingual DS counterparts. Nonetheless, there was considerable diversity in the second-language abilities demonstrated by these individuals with DS. Clinical implications are addressed.

Non-verbal cognitive development and language impairment

BACKGROUND

Specific language impairment (SLI) is currently partly defined by the presence of non-verbal IQ scores in the normal range. However, not only is there a debate concerning where 'normal thresholds' should be, but increasing information about the presence of processing deficits in SLI have led some researchers to question the use of IQ criteria in clinical diagnosis. In particular, little is known about the longitudinal and developmental patterns of cognitive performance in this population.

METHOD

Data from a long-term follow-up study of SLI was examined in 82 children defined at original participation as having SLI who had IQ measurements at 7, 8, 11 and 14 years.

RESULTS

Analyses revealed a significant fall between 7 and 14 years of over 20 IQ points. This fall took place mainly between 8 and 11 years but was still continuing between 11 and 14 years. Further investigation revealed different groups of children showing different developmental patterns in IQ, even after controlling for baseline measurement. These groups also showed significantly different language outcomes at 14 years. Analyses controlling for IQ at 7 were also performed that suggested a dynamic process between language and cognitive development.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings appear to be in agreement with a model of impairment that views 'Residual Normality' as unlikely (Karmiloff-Smith, 1998; Thomas & Karmiloff-Smith, 2002). The implications are therefore discussed in relation to the dynamic development of systems along with the possible cognitive mechanisms (such as working memory) that might interact with language to create an SLI profile.

Classification of children with specific language impairment: longitudinal considerations

This paper reports on the longitudinal results of a large project involving 242 seven-year-old children attending language units in England. Following our work outlining 6 subgroups of children with language impairment (Conti-Ramsden, Crutchley, & Botting, 1997), we examine the stability of the 6 subgroups of children with specific language impairment already identified, using data collected from the same children at age 8 years. The findings suggest there is considerable stability in the patterns of difficulties delineated by the classification system involving 6 subgroups. Poorer stability was evident in the classification of the children across time with 45% of children moving across subgroups. The membership stability of the proposed classification system was very similar to that found when the children were classified into 3 subgroups following another well-known system (Rapin, 1996). The findings are discussed with particular reference to issues surrounding the classification of children with SLI.