Identifying developmental language disorder in bilingual children from diverse linguistic backgrounds

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate an assessment approach that incorporates a parent questionnaire (ALDeQ) and two language processing tasks (nonword repetition [NWR] and recalling sentences [RS]) administered in English to differentiate bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) from typically developing (TD) bilingual children.

Method: Participants were 42 typically developing bilingual children (biTD) and 19 bilingual children with DLD (biDLD). Groups were matched for age (M = 5;10) socioeconomic status (M = 1,023 SEIFA) and length of exposure to English (M = 33.4 months). Children were given a NWR and RS task. Parents completed the ALDeQ.

Result: BiDLD had significantly (p < 0.005) lower average scores than biTD on all three assessment tools. The ALDeQ provided the highest diagnostic accuracy (100% sensitivity, 95.2% specificity, area under the curve [AUC] = 0.991). Two other combinations also provided good diagnostic accuracy (above 80% sensitivity and 80% specificity): combination of ALDeQ and NWR; scores below the cut-offline on any combination of assessment tools.

Conclusion: Correct identification of DLD among bilingual children using an all English approach is possible. This approach has the potential to provide a practical and evidence-based solution for English speaking speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working with bilingual children.

Keywords:

• Child bilingualism
• developmental language disorder
• assessment
• parent questionnaires
• language processing

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Johanne Paradis, Kristyn Emmerzael and Tamara Sorenson Duncan who gave permission for use of the ALDeQ (Alberta Language and Development Questionnaire) and ALEQ (Alberta Language Environment Questionnaire) in this study. Downloadable copies of these questionnaires can be found here: https://www.ualberta.ca/linguistics/cheslcentre/questionnaires. Thank you to all the families that kindly took interest in the study and volunteered to participate. A very special thanks to the dedicated staff at participating schools and particularly to the cultural brokers and interpreters. Without their tireless work and invaluable relationships with families, the outreach and diversity of this study would not have been possible. Lastly, we thank the anonymous reviewers for critically reading the manuscript and suggesting substantial improvements.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.