Bilingual children acquiring Russian and German in Vienna: nonword repetition correlates with stronger but not with weaker language.

PURPOSE: Nonword repetition tests (NWRT) can be useful tools together with other assessment procedures for diagnosing a developmental learning disorder in bilingual children. Concerning typically developing children, however, the link between NWRT performance and language development is still unclear. The present study contributes to this discussion by investigating the link between language-dependent NWRT performance, language development, and language exposure. METHODS: A total of 20 simultaneously bilingual Russian-German children, aged 4-6 years, were tested with "The Russian language proficiency test for multilingual children (SRUK)" and "Patholinguistische Diagnostik bei Sprachentwicklungsstörungen (PDSS)" as well as language-specific nonwords for Russian and German. RESULTS: Most children scored within the mean range in SRUK. In PDSS they scored two standard deviations below the mean range in most of the subtests. NWRT in Russian significantly correlated with the NWRT in German and also positively correlated with both comprehension and production in Russian. In contrast, the German NWRT did not correlate with comprehension or with production in German. Moreover, the correlation between the German NWRT and the comprehension of grammatical structures in Russian was significant, and the correlations between the German NWRT and the two other Russian language development tests just failed to reach significance. CONCLUSION: High scores in both the Russian and the German NWRT offer evidence that the ability to repeat language-specific nonwords does not differ depending on language exposure. The aim to distinguish between typical and atypical language development based on NWRT can be reached only when NWRT and all possible influencing factors in typically developed children are analyzed.

Important aspects in the assessment of bilingual children with suspected language impairment: The Vienna Model.

BACKGROUND: Due to demographic changes over the last few decades, the number of multilingual children has grown rapidly. Many of them face problems in learning their second language. Similarities between linguistic manifestations of stages of second language acquisition and an impairment of language acquisition cause a diagnostic dilemma. The Vienna Model of language assessment in multilingual children will be presented. METHODS: A key feature of our procedure is the integration of medical students as native speakers in diagnosing acquisition of the first language. A case study of a boy with Russian as first language illustrates the procedure. RESULTS: The Vienna Model of language assessment in multilingual children offers the possibility to evaluate language competence in a differentiated manner with support of medical students as native speakers. Based on the bilingual assessment on different linguistic levels the diagnosis ICD-10 F80.0 is given. The subsequent short therapy showed an improvement regarding phonological competence.