Where to start: Use of the bilingual multidimensional ability scale (B-MAS) to identify developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilingual children.

PURPOSE: The identification of developmental language disorder (DLD) is challenging for clinicians who assess bilinguals. This paper introduces a protocol-based approach, the Bilingual Multidimensional Ability Scale (B-MAS), for expert raters to identify DLD in bilinguals. METHOD: Three bilingual speech-language pathologists (SLPs) reviewed 166 Spanish-English bilingual children's profiles, which included performance on direct (morphosyntax, semantics, and narrative tasks) and indirect (parent/teacher survey) measures in both languages. A multidimensional scale (0-5) was adopted to rate children's performance. A diagnosis of DLD was made if at least two raters assigned a summary rating of ≤2. RESULT: Analysis of the scores on the B-MAS resulted in the identification of 21 children as having DLD. Though different strategies were employed to make decisions, the three SLPs demonstrated high inter-rater agreement across different ratings (intraclass correlation coefficient values ranged from .83 to .90). CONCLUSION: For bilingual populations that are understudied and for which gold standards of assessment are not available, the B-MAS can be adopted as a starting point to study DLD or as a reference standard to develop new assessment tools in that population. Clinically, this protocol could be tailored and evaluated by a group of SLPs serving a large population of a particular bilingual group for diagnostic purposes.

Identification of specific language impairment in bilingual children: I. Assessment in English.

PURPOSE: This study was designed to derive cut scores for English testing for use in identifying specific language impairment (SLI) in bilingual children who were learning English as a second language. METHOD: In a 1-gate design, 167 children received comprehensive language assessments in English and Spanish during their first-grade year. The reference standard was identification by a team of expert bilingual speech-language pathologists. Receiver operating curve (ROC) analyses were used to identify the optimal prediction model for SLI. RESULTS: The original, English EpiSLI criteria (Tomblin, Records, & Zhang, 1996) yielded a sensitivity of .95 and a specificity of .45 (LR+ = 1.73, LR- = 0.11, and AUC = .79) for our bilinguals. Revised cutoff scores yielded a sensitivity of .86 and a specificity of .68 (LR+ = 2.67, LR- = 0.21, and AUC = .77). An optimal prediction model yielded a sensitivity of .81 and a specificity of .81 (LR+ = 4.37, LR- = 0.23 and AUC = .85). CONCLUSION: The results of English testing could be used to make a reasonably accurate diagnostic decision for bilingual children who had attended public school for at least 1 year and were using English at least 30% of the time.

What You Hear and What You Say: Language Performance in Spanish English Bilinguals.

PURPOSE: This study assesses the factors that contribute to Spanish and English language development in bilingual children. METHOD: 757 Hispanic Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten age children completed screening tests of semantic and morphosyntactic development in Spanish and English. Parents provided information about their occupation and education as well as their children's English and Spanish exposure. Data were analyzed using zero-inflated regression models (comprising a logistic regression component and a negative binomial or Poisson component) to explore factors that contributed to children initiating L1 and L2 performance and factors that contributed to building children's knowledge. RESULTS: Factors that were positively associated with initiating L1 and L2 performance were language input/output, free and reduced lunch, and age. Factors associated with building knowledge included age, parent education, input/output, free and reduced lunch and school district. CONCLUSION: Amount of language input is important as children begin to use a language, and amount of language output is important for adding knowledge to their language. Semantic development seemed to be driven more by input while morphosyntax development relied on both input and output. Clinicians who assess bilingual children should examine children's language output in their second language to better understand their levels of performance.