Linguistic Skills in Bilingual Children With Developmental Language Disorders: A Pilot Study

The Use of Language Sample Analysis to Differentiate Developmental Language Disorder From Typical Language in Bilingual Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PURPOSE

Language sample analysis (LSA) is a commonly recommended method of assessment for bilingual children. This systematic review and meta-analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the literature on the use of LSA to differentiate between developmental language disorder (DLD) and typical language (TL) in bilingual children.

METHOD

We conducted a search of several large electronic databases along with forward and backward searches and applied abstract and full-text screening procedures to identify all relevant studies. We then estimated standardized mean differences, representing the ability of LSA to differentiate between DLD and TL, using multilevel model and subgroup and moderator analyses to identify characteristics of LSA that may be associated with differences in effect size magnitude. We conducted assessments of publication bias and risk of bias by examining quality indicators for each study.

RESULTS

The search yielded 35 articles that met the inclusion criteria. Participants ranged in age from 2;0 (years;months) to 11;9, with over 40 languages represented. Across studies, the pooled standardized mean difference indicated that children with DLD performed 0.78 SD lower on LSA measures than those with TL. Measures of morphosyntactic accuracy exhibited the largest pooled effect size. Elicitation method, language of task, and age were not associated with differences in effect size.

DISCUSSION

Results of this study provide evidence of the clinical utility of LSA in differentiating between DLD and TL in bilingual children. Further research is needed to examine classification accuracy as well as task characteristics that may improve its diagnostic utility.

Which Factors Predict L2 Receptive Vocabulary and Expressive Syntax in Bilingual Children from Low-SES Families?

INTRODUCTION

The objective of the current study was two-fold. First, it aimed to estimate receptive vocabulary and expressive syntax skills in L2 Italian among early sequential/simultaneous bilingual children of migrant single-mother families with very low socioeconomic status (SES). This objective was achieved by matching the participants' performance with normative data. Secondly, this study aimed to identify which individual and language exposure factors contributed to learning L2 vocabulary and syntax.

METHODS

Twenty-four early sequential/simultaneous bilingual children (age range = 5.10-12.4 years) and their mothers were enrolled. Mothers answered questions about linguistic biography and demographic information. Children completed Lexical Comprehension, Sentence Repetition, and Non-Word Repetition tasks from the Language Assessment Battery for 4-12-year-olds to, respectively, assess receptive vocabulary, expressive syntax, and phonological processing. Moreover, non-verbal intellectual functioning was evaluated by the Raven's Test.

RESULTS/DISCUSSION

Compared to normative data, 20 children showed lower receptive vocabulary abilities (<-1.5 SD), 24 lower expressive syntax skills (-2DS), and 7 children lower phonological processing (<-1.5 DS). Moreover, L2 phonological processing and the length of L2 exposure in an educational context positively predicted L2 receptive vocabulary as well as L2 expressive syntax skills. To date, performance in L2 among early sequential/simultaneous bilingual children from migrant households and very low SES remains underexplored. Future efforts need to be directed towards the understanding of factors that impact oral competence in L2, considering that these children will also be exposed to written L2 in the school context.

Diagnostic Accuracy of Grammaticality and Utterance Length in Bilingual Children

PURPOSE

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

METHOD

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

RESULTS

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

CONCLUSIONS

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

Selective mutism in immigrant families: An ecocultural perspective

Although the diagnosis of selective mutism (SM) is more prevalent among immigrant children, the link between the disorder and an immigration background has been elusive. Guided by ecocultural models of development, the current study aimed to construct a theory-based description of SM while considering individual, family, and contextual risk factors. Participants were 78 children with SM (38.4% with an immigration background), and 247 typically developed children (18.2% with an immigration background). Consistent with previous studies, our results suggest that anxiety was the most important predictor of SM symptoms, above and beyond immigration background. Immigration, especially if coupled with bilingual status and low family income, predicted increased levels of SM symptoms. Identifying multi-level predictors of SM may help researchers and clinicians to improve early identification and treatment of SM in culturally and linguistically diverse children.

Developmental language disorder in sequential bilinguals: Characterising word properties in spontaneous speech

The current study sought to investigate whether word properties can facilitate the identification of developmental language disorder (DLD) in sequential bilinguals by analyzing properties in nouns and verbs in L2 spontaneous speech as potential DLD markers. Measures of semantic (imageability, concreteness), lexical (frequency, age of acquisition) and phonological (phonological neighbourhood, word length) properties were computed for nouns and verbs produced by 15 sequential bilinguals (5;7) with DLD and 15 age-matched controls with diverse L1 backgrounds. Linear mixed modelling revealed a significant interaction of group and word category on phonological neighbourhood values but no differences across imageability, concreteness, frequency, age of acquisition, and word length measures in spontaneous speech. Outcomes suggest that group-level differences may not be apparent at the word-level, due to the heterogeneous nature of DLD and potential similarities in production during early L2 acquisition.

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

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

Bilingualism in children with a dual diagnosis of Down syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Research shows that a substantial proportion of children with Down syndrome (DS) also meet the clinical criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Children with this dual diagnosis display a linguistic profile that includes significant language delays and language impairments which often differ from the impairments observed in each developmental disability (DD) separately. Given the challenges observed with language acquisition for children with DS-ASD, concerns might be raised regarding the outcomes and suitability of a bilingual environment for children with this dual diagnosis specifically. The aim of this research was to explore the language profiles of four children with DS-ASD. A multiple case-study approach was employed. Four children with a confirmed DS-ASD diagnosis who had received exposure to two languages (English and Welsh) were assessed on a range of cognitive and linguistic measures. Performance was compared to three control groups; bilinguals with DS, English monolinguals with DS and mental age-matched typically developing bilinguals. Assessments comprised of expressive and receptive language, phonological awareness, working memory and non-verbal cognitive abilities. Considerable variability was found in the cognitive and linguistic profiles of the case-study participants. Children with DS-ASD displayed similar language profiles to that of the bilingual and monolingual children with DS in the areas tested, although performance was generally lower than that of the TD bilingual children. Although substantial variability was found, participants were developing bilingual abilities in a similar trajectory to children with DS in line with the degree of exposure to each language. This research highlights the need to assess bilingual children with complex dual diagnoses with an individualistic approach and carefully consider how to appropriately assess and treat bilingual children within speech and language therapy provisions.

Developmental Language Disorder: Early Predictors, Age for the Diagnosis, and Diagnostic Tools. A Scoping Review

BACKGROUND

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is frequent in childhood and may have long-term sequelae. By employing an evidence-based approach, this scoping review aims at identifying (a) early predictors of DLD; (b) the optimal age range for the use of screening and diagnostic tools; (c) effective diagnostic tools in preschool children.

METHODS

We considered systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and primary observational studies with control groups on predictive, sensitivity and specificity values of screening and diagnostic tools and psycholinguistic measures for the assessment of DLD in preschool children. We identified 37 studies, consisting of 10 systematic reviews and 27 primary studies.

RESULTS

Delay in gesture production, receptive and/or expressive vocabulary, syntactic comprehension, or word combination up to 30 months emerged as early predictors of DLD, a family history of DLD appeared to be a major risk factor, and low socioeconomic status and environmental input were reported as risk factors with lower predictive power. Optimal time for screening is suggested between age 2 and 3, for diagnosis around age 4. Because of the high variability of sensitivity and specificity values, joint use of standardized and psycholinguistic measures is suggested to increase diagnostic accuracy.

CONCLUSIONS

Monitoring risk situations and employing caregivers' reports, clinical assessment and multiple linguistic measures are fundamental for an early identification of DLD and timely interventions.

The Complex Relation between Executive Functions and Language in Preschoolers with Developmental Language Disorders

Backgrounds: The relationship between linguistic difficulties and cognitive impairments in children with developmental language disorders (DLDs) is receiving growing interest in international research. Executive functions (EF) appear to be weak in these children. The current investigation aims at exploring the relationship between difficulties in two components of EF (i.e., updating and inhibition) and the linguistic and narrative skills of 16 DLD preschoolers matched with 24 typically developing peers. Methods: Updating skills were tested by administering the forward and backward digit recall subtests of the Wechsler Scales, while children's inhibition abilities were assessed by completion of Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment (NEPSY-II) inhibition tasks. Information on the linguistic skills of the participants was collected through a set of subtests included in the Batteria per la Valutazione del Linguaggio in bambini dai 4 ai 12 anni (Batteria per la Valutazione del Linguaggio; BVL_4-12), assessing articulatory and phonological discrimination skills, lexical production/comprehension, grammatical production/comprehension, and narrative production skills. Results: Findings revealed that DLD children performed significantly lower than their peers on both updating and inhibitory tasks. Linguistic difficulties were found in the DLD group on articulatory/phonological skills, grammatical production/comprehension, and lexical informativeness on narrative production. Measures of EF correlated with linguistic and narrative measures. Conclusion: The current study confirms a significant association between DLD's performances on EF and displayed linguistic skills, suggesting the need to include the assessment of executive functions to target early intervention rehabilitation programs for children with DLDs.

Toward a characterization of language development in children with congenital heart disease: A pilot study

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) represent one of the most common types of congenital abnormalities. More than 90% of children with critical heart defects achieve adulthood due to improvements in medical and surgical treatments. Nonetheless, survivors are at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders that may lead also to language impairments. The current study analyzed the linguistic profiles of a group of school-aged children treated surgically for CHD.Fifteen Children with CHDs (7 girls and 8 boys; mean age = 9.31 with SD = 2.10), without intellectual disability (i.e., IQ>70), who underwent cardiac surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), were administered a selection of tests from the language assessment tool BVL 4-12. Their performance was compared with that of 15 healthy children matched for age and gender. As a result, children with CHDs scored significantly lower than healthy peers on tasks tapping lexical and grammatical processing as well as the episodic buffer component of working memory. Interestingly, the two groups did not differ on tasks assessing their lexical repertoire and phonological discrimination abilities. These findings are discussed in light of current theories of cognitive development and functioning.