Phonological memory problems are magnified in children from language minority homes when predicting reading disability.

Children from language minority (LM) environments speak a language at home that differs from that at school, are often from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, and are at risk for reading impairment. We evaluated the main effects and interaction of language status and phonological memory and awareness on reading disorder in 352 children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. A significant phonological memory by language status interaction indicated that phonological memory problems were magnified in predicting reading impairment in children from LM versus English dominant (ED) homes. Among children without reading disorder, language minority status was unrelated to phonological processing.

Bilingualism May Be Protective Against Executive Function and Visual Processing Deficits Among Children With Attention Problems.

Objective: The current study examined how the opposing effects of bilingualism and attention problems operate on executive functioning, visual processing, and verbal fluency in children with clinically significant levels of attention problems. Method: We tested whether bilingualism moderated associations between attention problems and visual processing, executive functioning, and verbal fluency. Results: Bilingual children (n = 331) showed visual processing advantages relative to their monolingual peers (n = 165), but only at higher, and not lower, levels of attention problems. Bilingualism did not moderate the association between attention problems and interference control; however, across all children, those with higher levels of attention problems had more difficulty with interference control. Monolingual children demonstrated advantages in verbal fluency relative to bilingual children, but this did not vary with attention problems. Conclusion: Visual processing advantages in bilinguals are detected among children with heightened attention problems, but advantages in interference control are not; findings may have implications for classroom interventions.