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

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• bilingual
• developmental language disorder
• diagnosis

Acknowledgements

We want to thank Melissa White and Chad Bingham, along with Anita Mendez-Perez, who served as the raters to review and rate the bilingual case profiles.

Disclosure statement

Elizabeth D Peña and Lisa M. Bedore are authors of the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment. Ronald Gillam is an author of the Test of Narrative Language.