Academic Outcomes in Bilingual Children With Developmental Language Disorder: A Longitudinal Study

Morphological and Inhibitory Skills in Monolingual and Bilingual Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

PURPOSE

This study examined the language and nonverbal inhibitory control skills of Italian monolingual and bilingual typically developing (TD) preschoolers with Italian as their second language and of age-matched monolingual and bilingual peers with developmental language disorder (DLD).

METHOD

Four groups of preschoolers were enrolled: 30 TD Italian monolinguals, 24 TD bilinguals, 19 Italian monolinguals with DLD, and 19 bilinguals with DLD. All children were assessed in Italian on vocabulary, receptive morphosyntax, and morphological markers for DLD in the Italian language (i.e., third-person verb inflections, definite articles, third-person direct-object clitic pronouns, simple prepositions) and nonverbal inhibitory control skills. Group performance was compared using a series of one-way analyses of variance.

RESULTS

Monolingual and bilingual children with DLD achieved significantly lower performance in all language measures compared to both TD monolingual and bilingual children. However, TD bilinguals, although comprehensively showing better language skills than monolinguals with DLD, achieved a performance closer to that of monolinguals with DLD but significantly higher than that of bilinguals with DLD. Both TD monolinguals and bilinguals showed better results than both DLD groups in inhibitory control tasks, particularly in the interference suppression task.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides a picture of language and inhibitory control characteristics of children with various language profiles and adds to the literature on potential markers of DLD among bilingual children. These results suggest that the assessment of nonlinguistic markers, which are associated with language impairment, could be a useful approach to better specify the diagnosis of DLD and reduce cases of misdiagnosis in the context of bilingualism.

IsiZulu-speaking caregivers' perceptions of child language stimulation

BACKGROUND

 South African children from low-income households are at higher risk of cognitive-linguistic difficulties because of multiple risk factors. Early language stimulation minimises the effects of risk factors and prepares children for literacy and learning. Understanding caregivers' perceptions of language stimulation is important because perceptions shape practices, which determine child language outcomes.

OBJECTIVES

 This study explored the existing perceptions of language stimulation among 15 isiZulu-speaking caregivers from KwaDabeka township.

METHOD

 A qualitative, descriptive research design was adopted and the caregivers were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. The NVivo software programme supported the inductive, thematic analysis of the data.

RESULTS

 Although the caregivers held positive perceptions of language stimulation, their perceptions of benefit focussed on meeting children's basic physiological needs with less reference to the long-term benefits for literacy, employment and social integration. Providing language models, watching television, singing songs, and reading books were perceived to be examples of language-stimulating activities and techniques. The caregivers expressed a need to improve their knowledge of language stimulation and queried how they could be supported to achieve this outcome.

CONCLUSION

 This group of caregivers needed support to increase their awareness of the long-term benefits of language stimulation and their knowledge and use of evidence-based activities, stimuli and facilitation techniques.Contribution: Caregivers' existing perceptions could serve as a barrier to the effective language stimulation of children from low-income households in South Africa.

Psycholinguistic profiling of children with sluggish cognitive tempo

Language disorders are frequently comorbid with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), a second attention disorder, may potentially explain some of the links between language disorders and ADHD. In this study we examined the psycholinguistic abilities of 207 children (mean age 7;10) with and without clinically significant levels of SCT symptoms to determine the degree to which symptoms of language disorder co-occur in cases of SCT. Analyses of children's tense-marking, nonword repetition, and sentence recall indicated that deficits in these areas were not associated with SCT. Instead, SCT appears to be more closely aligned with features of social (pragmatic) communication disorder.

A First-Person Account of Developmental Language Disorder

PURPOSE

The aim of this study is to share the lived experiences of an adult with developmental language disorder (DLD) and relate her experience to the evidence base and issues in clinical practice.

METHOD

We co-wrote a first-person account grounded in the research literature. We organized the account into six main sections: (a) the early signs of DLD; (b) diagnosis; (c) treatment; (d) the impact of DLD on family relationships, social-emotional health, and academic performance; and (e) considerations for practicing speech-language pathologists. We close with (f) the first author's current perspective on life with DLD.

CONCLUSIONS

The first author was diagnosed with moderate-to-severe DLD in early childhood, and she continues to exhibit subtle and occasional symptoms of DLD as an adult. At specific points in development, her family relationships were disrupted and her social, emotional, and academic functions were disabled, particularly in the school context. Supportive adults, especially her mother and her speech-language pathologist, helped lessen these impacts. DLD and its consequences also positively influenced her worldview and professional choices. The precise nature of her DLD and her experiences around the disorder will not be true of everyone with DLD. Nevertheless, the broad themes that emerge from her narrative are reflected in the evidence base and thus are likely applicable to many individuals with DLD or other neurodevelopmental conditions.

Predictors of Reading Development Among School-Age Bilingual Children With Developmental Language Disorder: A Scoping Review

PURPOSE

Systematic reviews of bilingual children's reading development are very limited, and none of which solely focus on predictors of reading difficulties among those with developmental language disorder (DLD). The present scoping review fills an important need by analyzing the recent research literature on the reading outcomes of bilingual children with DLD. Specifically, this study aims to identify predictors of reading difficulties among bilingual children with DLD to improve early identification.

METHOD

The search parameters used in this scoping review included peer-reviewed journal articles written in English from 2000 to 2022 in order to synthesize the most recent empirical work, a focus on early childhood through early adolescent (pre-K to eighth grade) bilinguals with DLD, and research designs that included case study, descriptive, cross-sectional, quasi-experimental, longitudinal, and qualitative methods.

RESULTS

The present review yielded nine articles, which all examined the predictive validity of either a measure or task with the ultimate goal of improving early identification of reading difficulties. Significant predictors of reading difficulties, such as rapid naming and blending in first language (L1), were found to aid in identifying bilingual children who have DLD.

CONCLUSIONS

To conclude, this review demonstrates that this is a highly under-researched topic. To have ended up including only nine articles that fit the criteria of our search reveals a large gap in the research and a limitation of this review.

Retrospective bullying trajectories in adults with self-reported oral language difficulties

BACKGROUND

Previous research has consistently evidenced that children with speech and language difficulties suffer more bullying victimisation during middle school years, whereas other educative stages remain less explored. Moreover, there are divergent results in previous evidence about the types of victimisation (physical, verbal, relational) youths may experience.

AIMS

To examine the retrospective developmental trajectories of bullying victimisation in adults with and without self-reported oral language difficulties across seven educational stages (preschool to university). Special attention was given to the prevalence and types of victimisation.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

A total of 336 participants (ages between 18 and 65, M = 30.3) from a sample of 2259 participants that fully answered an online survey were classified as having experienced oral language difficulties (LD) not associated with a biomedical condition. A comparable control group (n = 336; ages between 18 and 72, M = 30.0) was randomly selected for statistical between-groups contrasts. Responses to the California Bullying Victimization Scale-Retrospective (CBVS-R) were analysed by generalised estimating equations (GEE) including language groups, types of bullying, and educational stages as explanatory variables. Specific language group comparisons in terms of percentages were conducted using chi-square tests.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

GEE results suggested that experiencing LD was associated with an overall increase in the likelihood of bullying victimisation, Wald's χ2 (1) = 8.41, p < 0.005 for the main effect of the LD group, along almost all educational stages, Wald's χ2 (6) = 3.13, p = 0.69 for the LD group × educational stage interaction. Finally, a higher proportion of participants in the LD group reported having suffered teasing behaviours at the second cycle of elementary, the first cycle of secondary, and baccalaureate. They also reported with a higher proportion being physically hurt at preschool and having received sexual comments at the second cycle of elementary, Wald's χ2 (93) = 259.87, p < 0.001 for the LD group × educational stage × type of bullying interaction.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

People with oral language difficulties experience more bullying victimisation behaviours than their typically developing peers. Heightened bullying prevalence in children with language difficulties seems to emerge as early as 6-9 years old and persists along the rest of schooling. Not all victimisation forms seem to show differential increased rates in people with speech/language difficulties, evidencing important implications for bullying assessment. Results highlight the need to provide particular support to individuals with language difficulties against bullying during the entire schooling.

La situación del trastorno específico del lenguaje en los países hispanohablantes

El trastorno específico del lenguaje (TEL) es un trastorno del lenguaje oral con desarrollo en etapa infantil que afecta a la expresión y la comprensión. En el ámbito angloparlante, fruto de dos estudios con la metodología Delphi (Bishop et al., 2016; 2017) se ha generalizado, tanto en el ámbito clínico y educativo como en las publicaciones científicas, el uso de la nueva terminología (Developmental Language Disorder o DLD), así como los principales acuerdos alcanzados respecto a su concepción, detección, evaluación, diagnóstico e intervención. En el ámbito hispanohablante es necesario un proceso de reflexión por parte de expertos especializados en el ámbito que analice si la adopción de los principales acuerdos a nivel anglosajón es factible y ajustado para el contexto hispano. En este sentido, el objetivo de este estudio es analizar el uso actual de la conceptualización, etiqueta/s diagnóstica/s y los criterios diagnósticos de las dificultades del desarrollo del lenguaje oral en los diferentes países de habla hispana. El estudio se ha basado en la metodología de recogida de datos mediante encuestas realizadas a profesionales de acción directa e investigadores del TEL. Los resultados muestran las principales características sobre el trastorno que son compartidas mayoritariamente en todo el ámbito lingüístico español, así como las que presentan más discrepancias. Destaca el predominio de la terminología TEL aunque crece el uso de la expresión trastorno del desarrollo del lenguaje (TDL). Los resultados también muestran una gran diversidad en los criterios diagnósticos y en algunos aspectos de la concepción del trastorno. Estas informaciones permiten mostrar una primera aproximación a la situación del trastorno y puede servir como base para un proceso de reflexión y acuerdo que fije unas recomendaciones y criterios globales para todo el ámbito hispanohablante. 

A systematic review of the academic achievement of primary and secondary school-aged students with developmental language disorder

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The ability to communicate is a fundamental skill required to participate in school. Students with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have persistent and significant language difficulties that impact daily functioning. However, the impact of DLD on the academic achievement of primary and secondary school-aged students has received limited attention.

METHODS

A systematic review of the empirical research published between 2008 and 2020 was undertaken to identify studies that have examined the academic achievement of school-aged students with DLD within curriculum areas. A total of 44 studies were identified that met inclusion criteria for review.

RESULTS

Students with DLD demonstrated difficulties with academic achievement across all measured curriculum areas compared to their typically developing peers. Most studies focused on literacy skills, including reading, spelling, writing and narratives.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

The performance of students with DLD was heterogeneous with individual students demonstrating relative strengths in some areas of academic achievement. The implications of these results for educational practices and future research are discussed.

Vocabulary Abilities and Parents' Emotional Regulation Predict Emotional Regulation in School-Age Children but Not Adolescents With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

A comprehensive approach, including social and emotional affectations, has been recently proposed as an important framework to understand Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). There is an increasing considerable interest in knowing how language and emotion are related, and as far as we know, the role of the emotional regulation (ER) of parents of children with and without DLD, and their impact on their children's ER is still unknown. The main aims of this study are to advance our knowledge of ER in school-age children and adolescents with and without DLD, to analyze the predictive value of expressive and receptive vocabulary on ER in school-age children and adolescents, and to explore parental ER and their effect on their children's and adolescents' ER. To cover all objectives, we carried out three studies. In the first and second study, expressive and receptive vocabulary were assessed in wave 1, and ER (Emotional Regulation Checklist -ERC- for children and Emotion Regulation Scale -DERS- for adolescents) was assessed in wave 2, 4 years later. Participants in the first study consisted of two groups of school-aged children (13 had DLD and 20 were typically developing children -TD). Participants in the second study consisted of two groups of adolescents (16 had DLD and 16 were TD adolescents). In the third study, the ER of 65 of the parents of the children and adolescents from study 1 were assessed during wave 2 via self-reporting the DERS questionnaire. Results showed no significant differences in ER between DLD and TD groups neither in middle childhood nor in adolescence. Concerning vocabulary and ER, expressive language predicted ER in school-age children but not in adolescents. Finally, parental ER explained their school-age children's ER, but this was not the case in adolescents. In conclusion, the present data indicated that expressive vocabulary has a fundamental role in ER, at least during primary school years, and adds new evidence of the impact of parents' ER upon their children's ER, encouraging educators and speech language pathologists to include parents' assessments in holistic evaluations and interventions for children with language and ER difficulties.

Reading and Oral Language Skills in Children With Developmental Language Disorder: Influence of Socioeconomic, Educational, and Family Variables

The Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a delay in language skills that cannot be explained by sensory or cognitive difficulties. Currently, there are limited studies that analyze how socioeconomic, educational, and family variables influence reading skills of Spanish-speaking children with DLD at school. This study identifies how oral language performance and reading skills of children with DLD are linked to socioeconomic, educational, and family factors. Oral language, phonological awareness and reading abilities were assessed in a sample of 15 children diagnosed with DLD and their controls by age and gender. Children's parents answered a Likert scale questionnaire inquiring about some aspects related to the family's socioeconomic status, mothers' educational level, family support, academic average, and repetition of school years of the participants. The results indicate that children with DLD have a lower performance in phonological awareness tasks as well as in reading abilities. There is also a direct relationship between their performance in language and reading skills and variables as mother's educational level and family support. Likewise, children in the sample have a lower academic average as well as a higher school year repetition rate interfering in their academic life. Educational implications of these findings and a discussion on possible causality axes and protective factors that contributes to support this population are presented.

Sentence Repetition Tasks to Detect and Prevent Language Difficulties: A Scoping Review

Sentence repetition tasks (SRTs) have been widely used in language development research for decades. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in studying performance in SRTs as a clinical marker for language impairment. What are the characteristics of SRTs? For what purposes have SRTs been used? To what extent have they been used with young children, in different languages, and with different clinical populations? In order to answer these and other questions, we conducted a scoping review. Peer reviewed studies published in indexed scientific journals (2010–2021) were analyzed. A search in different databases yielded 258 studies. Research published in languages other than English or Spanish, adult samples, dissertations, case studies, artificial models, and theoretical publications were excluded. After this exclusion, 203 studies were analyzed. Our results show that most research using SRT were conducted with English monolingual speakers older than 5 years of age; studies with bilingual participants have mostly been published since 2016; and SRTs have been used with several non-typical populations. Research suggests that they are a reliable tool for identifying language difficulties and are specifically suitable for detecting developmental language disorder.

Intervención en Trastorno del Desarrollo del Lenguaje (TDL). Una revisión sistemática (2000-2020)

Este trabajo presenta los resultados de una revisión sistemática de la producción científica sobre de la intervención en TDL (antiguamente denominado como Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje, TEL) durante el periodo 2000-2020. Se accede a 31 publicaciones localizadas en las Bases de datos DIALNET y EBSCO, que cumplen los siguientes criterios de selección: año de publicación, idioma (inglés y español), revisión por pares e intervenciones en población con TDL o TEL. Se analizan entre otras, las siguientes dimensiones: objetivos de la intervención, estrategias, colaboración, resultados y limitaciones declaradas. Los principales hallazgos se refieren a la irrupción del concepto Trastorno del Desarrollo del Lenguaje (TDL) en los últimos años, a la preferencia por diseños experimentales y cuasi experimentales, y a los resultados positivos que coexisten con ganancias modestas en la mayoría de los estudios analizados. Las principales limitaciones encontradas son la ausencia de grupo control y la diferenciación de efectos. Las conclusiones señalan la necesidad de contar con mayor número de intervenciones basadas en un enfoque interactivo-colaborativo, ampliar la cobertura de objetivos hacia las necesidades de aprendizaje y cognitivas derivadas del TDL, así como considerar los diseños intra-sujetos, con observación de efectos a mediano y largo plazo que incluya a jóvenes y adultos.

Habilidades matemáticas tempranas en niños chilenos con Trastorno del Desarrollo del Lenguaje: Un estudio comparativo

En las últimas décadas se ha incrementado el interés de las investigaciones respecto a las dificultades académicas que presentan los niños con Trastorno del Desarrollo del Lenguaje (TDL). No obstante, su relación con las habilidades matemáticas es una de las menos estudiadas. El objetivo de este estudio consistió en determinar si existen diferencias relevantes entre las habilidades matemáticas tempranas de niños con TDL y con desarrollo típico (DT). Participaron 78 niños de 4 a 7 años 11 meses de edad, pertenecientes a colegios con programas de integración escolar de Santiago de Chile. Se conformó un grupo de 44 niños con TDL y un grupo de 34 con DT. Se establecieron comparaciones del rendimiento en tareas matemáticas pertenecientes a la versión en español del Test de Evaluación Matemática Temprana de Utrecht (TEMT-U): subtest relacionales (comparación, clasificación, correspondencia uno a uno y seriación), y subtest numérico (conteo verbal, conteo estructurado, conteo resultante y conocimiento general de los números); hallándose un rendimiento matemático significativamente menor en el grupo con TDL de educación infantil en ambos subtest. Los hallazgos sugieren que las dificultades propias de los niños con TDL impactan el aprendizaje matemático, especialmente en los niños más pequeños, por lo que resulta imperante disminuir las barreras que obstaculizan su proceso de aprendizaje.

Intervención en el control inhibitorio en niños con y sin trastorno de lenguaje dentro del aula

El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar el impacto de una intervención escolar en control inhibitorio llevada a cabo dentro de diversas aulas de segundo ciclo de primaria (9-11 años) que tenían alumnos con Trastorno del Desarrollo del Lenguaje (n = 5) o dislexia (n = 4) y sus compañeros de aula sin dificultades (n = 6). El diseño siguió un modelo pre-post intervención con las variables dependientes fluidez verbal, memoria fonológica y control inhibitorio. La intervención consistió en ocho sesiones de 10 minutos a todo el grupo clase, dos por semana durante cuatro semanas, más una sesión larga de 1 hora en grupo pequeño en medio de las sesiones, en las que se realizaba actividades basadas en diferentes tareas de control inhibitorio (“Stroop”, “Go-no go”, “Plots”, “Simon”,…). Los niños con TDL y dislexia mostraron una puntuación más baja en memoria fonológica antes de la intervención. La intervención sólo tuvo efecto en una leve mejora en todos los grupos en la memoria fonológica. Sin embargo, las comparaciones entre los grupos post-intervención mostraron puntuaciones significativamente más bajas en el grupo TDL respecto a los otros dos en fluencia verbal y control inhibitorio, que pueden indicar una posible mejoría de los grupos de dislexia y sin dificultades en estas variables. En conclusión, la intervención tuvo un escaso efecto, especialmente en el grupo con TDL. Se requieren más trabajos con un mayor número de participantes y de sesiones de intervención para poder corroborar la falta de efecto específico sobre el control inhibitorio y la fluencia verbal en los grupos intervenidos.

Infants' and Toddlers' Language, Math and Socio-Emotional Development: Evidence for Reciprocal Relations and Differential Gender and Age Effects

Toddlerhood is characterized by rapid development in several domains, such as language, socio-emotional behavior and emerging math skills all of which are important precursors of school readiness. However, little is known about how these skills develop over time and how they may be interrelated. The current study investigates young children’s development at two time points, with about 7 months in between, assessing their language, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills with teacher ratings. The sample includes 577 children from 18 until 36 months of age of 86 childcare classrooms. The results of the autoregressive path analyses showed moderate to strong stability of language, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills, although the magnitude of associations was smaller for the latter. The cross-lagged path analyses highlighted the importance of language and socio-emotional skills for development in the other domains. Differential relations were found for the autoregressive and cross-lagged paths depending on gender and age. Language skills appeared a stronger predictor of boys’ socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skill development compared to girls. Girls’ socio-emotional skills predicted growth in math. For boys, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills appeared to be unrelated. Language skills showed stronger relations with the development of math language and numeracy skills for younger children as compared to older children. Also, for older children math language and numeracy skills negatively predicted growth in their socio-emotional skills. The findings provide more insights in how language, math language and numeracy skills and socio-emotional skills co-develop in the early years and as such have important implications for interventions aimed to support children’s development.

Behavioral, Emotional and School Adjustment in Adolescents with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) Is Related to Family Involvement

Developmental language disorder (DLD) refers to a language delay in the absence of other underlying causes. Individuals with DLD can also present other problems related to behavioral, scholarly, and emotional aspects of their daily lives because of their language difficulties. Moreover, these difficulties could be influenced by family and socioeconomic characteristics. Twenty-eight bilingual adolescents with and without DLD in typical schools were followed from childhood to adolescence. At age five, language and cognitive variables were assessed. In addition, language, behavior, emotional and school adjustment, and socioeconomic and family aspects were evaluated at age 12. Results reveal that adolescents with DLD show poorer school adjustment and less adaptive skills when evaluated by their tutors, and a larger index of emotional problems when self-assessed. Moreover, family involvement, but not socioeconomic status (SES), emerged as a protective factor since it was related to behavioral, emotional, and school adjustment, a result that was further confirmed by structural equation modeling. Therefore, a more global approach involving individuals, schools and families is needed to provide adolescents with DLD adequate support. It is important to stimulate their social skills and emotional adjustment so they can cope with social difficulties more easily, especially at school.