The Contribution of Bilingualism, Parental Education, and School Characteristics to Performance on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals: Fourth Edition, Swedish

Beyond Language Scores: How Language Exposure Informs Assessment of Nonword Repetition, Vocabulary and Narrative Macrostructure in Bilingual Turkish/Swedish Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder

As in many other countries, baseline data concerning the linguistic development of bilingual children in Sweden are lacking, and suitable methods for identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilinguals are lacking as well. This study presents reference data from 108 typically developing (TD) Turkish/Swedish-speaking children aged 4;0-8;1, for a range of language tasks developed specifically for the assessment of bilinguals (LITMUS test battery, COST Action IS0804). We report on different types of nonword repetition (NWR) tasks (language-specific and language-independent), receptive and expressive vocabulary (Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks, CLTs), and narrative macrostructure comprehension and production (Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives, MAIN) in Turkish, the children's home language, and in Swedish, the language of schooling and society. Performance was investigated in relation to age, language exposure, type of task, and (for NWR and narratives) vocabulary size. There was a positive development with age for all tasks, but effects of language exposure and vocabulary size differed between tasks. Six bilingual Turkish/Swedish children with DLD were individually compared to the TD children. TD/DLD performance overlapped substantially, particularly for NWR, and more so for the production than the comprehension tasks. Surprisingly, the discriminatory potential was poor for both language-specific and language-independent NWR. DLD case studies underscored the importance of interpreting language scores in relation to exposure history, and the need for an increased emphasis on functional language skills as reported by parents and teachers when assessing and diagnosing DLD in bilinguals.

The Effect of Background Noise, Bilingualism, Socioeconomic Status, and Cognitive Functioning on Primary School Children's Narrative Listening Comprehension

PURPOSE

This study focuses on 7- to 9-year-old children attending primary school in Swedish areas of low socioeconomic status, where most children's school language is their second language. The aim was to better understand what factors influence these children's narrative listening comprehension both in an ideal listening condition (in quiet) and for the primary school classroom, a typical listening condition (with multitalker babble noise).

METHOD

A total of 86 typically developing 7- to 9-year-olds performed a narrative listening comprehension test (Lyssna, Förstå och Minnas [LFM]; English translation: Listen, Comprehend, and Remember) in two listening conditions: quiet and multitalker babble noise. They also performed the crosslinguistic nonword repetition test and a digit span backwards (DSB) test. A predictive statistical model including these factors, the children's degree of school language exposure, parental education level, and age was derived.

RESULTS

Listening condition had the strongest predictive value for LFM performance, followed by school language exposure and nonword repetition accuracy. Parental education level was also a significant predictor. There was a significant three-way interaction effect between listening condition, age, and DSB performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Multitalker babble noise has a negative effect on children's narrative listening comprehension. The effect of multitalker babble noise could be explained by age differences in the ability to allocate working memory capacity during the narrative listening comprehension task, suggesting that younger children may be more vulnerable for missing information when listening in background noise than their older peers.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25209248.

Assessment of Developmental Language Disorder in Multilingual Children: Results from an International Survey

INTRODUCTION

The Multilingual-Multicultural Affairs Committee of the International Association of Communication Disorders (IALP) conducted a survey of diagnostic criteria for developmental language disorder (DLD) in multilingual children to discover how clinicians apply terminology and diagnostic criteria to multilingual children in different parts of the world.

METHODS

An international web survey was used to survey 354 participants from 44 countries about their assessment practices, and clinical opinions about assessing multilingual children for DLD.

RESULTS

The findings show that most clinicians felt confident in assessing multilingual children, and they applied the DLD terminology and inclusionary criteria to multilingual children with difficulty learning language. Clinicians used different procedures to assess heritage and societal languages. Barriers to access to services included a lack of knowledge by parents and referral sources about services available and typical multilingual development, with additional reasons differing by geographical region.

DISCUSSION

Speech pathologists across the globe have many similarities in the way that they assess multilingual children. Differences may be attributed to clinical experience, professional education, the clinician's role, the system they work in, and the clinician's own language skills. This paper advances knowledge of current clinical practices, which can be used to evaluate frameworks in international and national contexts, with implications for policy and practice to improve access to clinical services.

A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of teacher continued professional development on student language outcomes

BACKGROUND

Continued professional development (CPD) is required for updated skills and knowledge. This study evaluates the efficacy of a CPD programme for mainstream school teachers.

AIMS

In an 11-week intervention programme, speech-language therapists (SLTs) presented the participating teachers with whole-class teaching techniques aimed at creating a language and communication-supporting classroom environment. The effects of the intervention on the language development of the students in the teachers' classes were assessed.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

A total of 211 first- and second-year students (M_age = 7;6, range = 6;5-8;9) underwent standardized language assessments of receptive and expressive language abilities before and after their teachers' participation in the CPD. The students were divided into intervention and delayed intervention groups to enable randomized intervention allocation. Linear mixed modelling was used to estimate the individual and interaction effects of group, time and demographic factors.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Significant effects of time, group and school, respectively, but no interaction between time and group indicates that while all students advanced between assessments, the progress was not attributable to the teachers' participation in the CPD.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

Results are discussed in light of those of recent studies of universal services to support optimal language development.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on this subject Although inconclusive, previous research indicates that intervention delivered to teachers by SLTs has the potential to improve the language abilities of the students in the teachers' classrooms. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This study explored the language development of first- and second-year mainstream school students whose teachers took part in a CPD programme aimed at establishing language and communication-supporting teaching techniques. Results indicate that the development of the students' language abilities could not be attributed to the teachers' participation in the CPD. What are the potential or actual implications of the work? SLTs are often asked to guide teachers and teaching staff rather than themselves conduct individual assessments and interventions. The results of this trial can be used to inform the discussion on how to prioritize between tasks.

Individual and cumulative risk factors in developmental language disorder: A case-control study

Many mental disorders (MD) share common etiology, fuelling debates about the specificity of clinical categories and whether the presence of specific risk factors (RF) can distinguish among them. The study of developmental language disorder (DLD), more specifically, has been further hindered by a lack of consensus regarding its definition. These limitations increase the risk of under-detection and lifelong consequences for affected children. This paper aims (1) to document which individual RF allow differentiating DLD from other MD and (2) to compare the cumulative RF between children with DLD versus other MD. This case-control design study used medical records of a psychiatric sample of 795 preschoolers (mean age 4:11, 75% boys). A logistic regression measured the predictive value of potential RF on DLD. Later first sentences, maternal immigration and family history of language delay were identified as significant in explaining 30% of the variance for DLD diagnosis. An ANCOVA revealed that children with DLD were exposed to a significantly higher number of RF than were children with other MD. Public health policies informed with the knowledge of specific RF associated with DLD, and their cumulative impact, could improve early detection and reduce the cascade of negative consequences associated with DLD.

Factors affecting speech-language pathologists' language assessment procedures and tools - challenges and future directions in Sweden

Purpose: National surveys of speech-language pathologists' (SLP) practices play an important role in professional development, and previous research show that many challenges faced by the profession are similar across the globe. This study aims to describe Swedish SLP assessment practices, examine factors that may affect this practice, and discuss the results in the light of international studies.Methods: Data from 584 SLPs were collected through an online questionnaire with multiple choice and open-ended questions. A mixed-method design was deployed where a deductive qualitative analysis of free-text responses complemented quantitative data.Results: In line with previous results from English-speaking countries, both standardized discrete skill tests and contextualized assessments were used by the respondents but fewer used language sample analysis and dynamic assessment procedures, despite international recommendations. There were few differences based on experience, work setting, proportion of multilingual assessments and socio-economic status of the health catchment area. Main challenges reported were lack of time and difficulty prioritizing, and assessment and/or diagnosis of multilingual/L2 children, which is similar to challenges faced by SLPs in other countries. Swedish SLPs also reported lack of national clinical guidelines as a main challenge. Factors contributing to better assessments included experience, and the combination of many sources of information, including professional and interprofessional discussions.Conclusions: The accumulated evidence from this and previous studies show that to address challenges and build on strengths, changes on a systemic level are needed. This includes more time and resources for continuing education and implementation of recommended assessment methods, as well as professional and interprofessional collaborations.

Word definition skills in elementary school children - The contribution of bilingualism, cognitive factors, and social factors

Purpose: Vocabulary relates to overall language proficiency and is important for academic success. Word definition (WD) tasks can be used to assess vocabulary depth and definition skills. We investigate monolingual and bilingual children's performances on a WD task, and how bilingualism, level of parental education, school characteristics (proportion of students with Swedish as second language and proportion of parents with tertiary education), CELF-4 Core Language Score, and non-verbal IQ contribute to their performance. We also evaluate the level of difficulty of the test items and the test's internal consistency.Method: Two hundred and eight children (mean age 7:8, range 6:8-9:0) were assessed with a 10-item WD task. Amount of information included in the definitions gave the WD score and number of words with at least partially correct information gave a Word knowledge score.Result: The bilingual group had lower scores on both measures. In isolation bilingualism explained 15% of the variance of the WD score. With all background factors included, the only significant predictor was CELF-4 Core Language Score, uniquely explaining 24.3% of the variance. Response patterns on the WD score were similar between groups. Internal consistency was > α = 0.7 for both measurements.Conclusion: Bilingual children performed lower than monolingual children on a WD task, but bilingualism alone cannot explain poor results.

What does the Sentence Structure component of the CELF-IV index, in monolinguals and bilinguals?

The Sentence Structure sub-test (SST) of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) aims to "measure the acquisition of grammatical (structural) rules at the sentence level". Although originally designed for clinical practice with monolingual children, components of the CELF, such as the SST, are often used to inform psycholinguistic research. Raw scores are also commonly used to estimate the English proficiency of bilingual children. This study queries the reliability of the SST as an index of children's ability to deal with structural complexity in sentence comprehension, and demonstrates that cognitive complexity induces a considerable confound in the task, affecting 5- to 7-year-old monolinguals (n = 87) and bilinguals (n = 87) alike.

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.

Listening effort and fatigue in native and non-native primary school children

Background noise makes listening effortful and may lead to fatigue. This may compromise classroom learning, especially for children with a non-native background. In the current study, we used pupillometry to investigate listening effort and fatigue during listening comprehension under typical (0 dB signal-to-noise ratio [SNR]) and favorable (+10 dB SNR) listening conditions in 63 Swedish primary school children (7-9 years of age) performing a narrative speech-picture verification task. Our sample comprised both native (n = 25) and non-native (n = 38) speakers of Swedish. Results revealed greater pupil dilation, indicating more listening effort, in the typical listening condition compared with the favorable listening condition, and it was primarily the non-native speakers who contributed to this effect (and who also had lower performance accuracy than the native speakers). Furthermore, the native speakers had greater pupil dilation during successful trials, whereas the non-native speakers showed greatest pupil dilation during unsuccessful trials, especially in the typical listening condition. This set of results indicates that whereas native speakers can apply listening effort to good effect, non-native speakers may have reached their effort ceiling, resulting in poorer listening comprehension. Finally, we found that baseline pupil size decreased over trials, which potentially indicates more listening-related fatigue, and this effect was greater in the typical listening condition compared with the favorable listening condition. Collectively, these results provide novel insight into the underlying dynamics of listening effort, fatigue, and listening comprehension in typical classroom conditions compared with favorable classroom conditions, and they demonstrate for the first time how sensitive this interplay is to language experience.

Identifying language disorder in bilingual children aged 2.5 years requires screening in both languages

AIM

Bilingual children are at risk of being overlooked for early identification of language difficulties. We investigated the accuracy of four screening models for children aged 2.5. The first model screened the child using their mother tongue, the second screened in Swedish, and the third screened in both languages used by the child. The fourth model consisted of direct screening in Swedish and using parental information about the child's language development in their mother tongue.

METHODS

Overall, 111 bilingual children (51% girls), 29-33 months, were recruited from three child health centres in Gävle, Sweden, from November 2015 to June 2017. All children were consecutively assessed by a speech and language pathologist, blinded to the screening outcomes.

RESULTS

Developmental language disorder was confirmed in 32 children (29%). Only the third model, based on direct assessment using the two languages used by the child, attained adequate accuracy; 88% sensitivity, 82% specificity, 67% positive and 94% negative predictive values.

CONCLUSION

Bilingual children should be screened directly in both their languages in order to achieve adequate accuracy. Such screening procedure is particularly important for children from families with low socio-economic status living in complex linguistic environments.