Bilingual Children Demonstrate Variation Within Shared Narrative Macrostructure.

Aims: We investigate the relationship between narrative macrostructure, current language exposure, and microstructure in second-grade Spanish-English bilingual children in the United States. Macrostructure knowledge has been claimed to be shared across languages in multilingual individuals. We examine the role of current language exposure and microstructure on macrostructure and how individual children organize their stories in English and Spanish.

Developmental changes in the word co-occurrences of Spanish-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder.

Purpose: The study aimed to understand how bilingual children with typical language development (TLD) and those with developmental language disorder (DLD) use frequent word co-occurrences in their narratives.

Method: We studied the change over time in the word co-occurrences used by 30 Spanish-English bilingual children with and without DLD (experimental group). An additional normative group consisted of 98 TLD Spanish-English bilingual first graders.

Modeling Dimensionality of Bilingual Kindergarteners' Language Knowledge in Spanish and English.

Purpose: This study used structural equation modeling to investigate the dimensionality of language in Spanish-English bilingual kindergartners. Five theoretical models were compared, including (a) a unidimensional model; (b) a two-dimensional model by language (Spanish, English); (c) a three-dimensional model by domain of language (phonology, semantics, morphosyntax); (d) a second-order model organized first by language (Spanish, English), with each language dimension comprising three domain-specific dimensions (phonology, semantics, morphosyntax); and (e) a six-dimensional model with freely covarying language-specific domains.

Method: Participants included 238 Spanish-English bilingual kindergartens, as identified by parent report of current language exposure and direct language measures.

Validation of the Mediated Learning Observation Instrument Among Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder in Dynamic Assessment.

Purpose: In this validation study, we examined the factor structure of the mediated learning observation (MLO) used during the teaching phase of dynamic assessment. As an indicator of validity, we evaluated whether the MLO factor structure was consistent across children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD).

Method: Two hundred twenty-four children (188 typically developing and 36 DLD) from kindergarten to second grade completed a 30-min individual mediated learning session on narrative production.

An Exploration of the Nature of Vocabulary Change Following Language and Literacy Together Intervention.

Purpose: This exploratory study evaluates how bilingual first graders' vocabulary use in narrative changed after a Spanish-language intervention that focuses on connection between language and literacy.

Method: Ten Spanish-English bilingual first graders produced three English and three Spanish narratives based on the Test of Narrative Language protocol pre- and postintervention. All samples were transcribed.

Exploring Assumptions of the Bilingual Delay in Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder.

Purpose: Bilingual children are both over- and under-identified with developmental language disorder (DLD). We propose that this may be a function of monolingual approaches that fail to consider the dynamic nature of bilingualism as well as assumptions of bilingual delay. We explored the extent to which bilingual children with and without DLD demonstrated mixed dominance as a function of exposure to English.

Understanding the Microstructure and Macrostructure Narrative Skills of Bilingual Adolescents in Relation to Their Language Experience.

Purpose: Narratives have been a useful tool for evaluating language skills in young bilingual children. This study extends that work to bilingual adolescents by (a) describing their narrative skills and (b) evaluating the role of current language experience on measures of narrative micro- and macrostructure across Spanish and English.

Method: Sixty-five Spanish-English bilingual adolescents, ages 10-15 years, were administered the Test of Narrative Language (TNL) in English and Spanish.

A cross-linguistic approach to treating speech sound disorders in bilingual children.

The present study explores generalisation of production skills across languages when treating speech sound disorders in bilingual children. Early work suggests that treating shared sounds across languages may facilitate cross-linguistic generalisation. Thus, selecting shared sounds across languages as targets may have clinical advantages.

Semantic Difficulty for Bilingual Children: Effects of Age, Language Exposure, and Language Ability.

Purpose: Semantic tasks evaluate dimensions of children's lexical-semantic knowledge. However, the relative ease of semantic task completion depends on individual differences in developmental and language experience factors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how language experience and language ability impact semantic task difficulty in English for school-age Spanish-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD).

Sharpening Our Tools: A Systematic Review to Identify Diagnostically Accurate Language Sample Measures.

Purpose: This systematic review provides a comprehensive summary of the diagnostic accuracy of English language sample analysis (LSA) measures for the identification of developmental language disorder.

Method: An electronic database search was conducted to identify English publications reporting empirical data on the diagnostic accuracy of English LSA measures for children aged 3 years or older.

Results: Twenty-eight studies were reviewed.

Identifying Language Disorder in Bilingual Children Using Automatic Speech Recognition.

Purpose: The differential diagnosis of developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilingual children represents a unique challenge due to their distributed language exposure and knowledge. The current evidence indicates that dual-language testing yields the most accurate classification of DLD among bilinguals, but there are limited personnel and resources to support this practice. The purpose of this study was therefore to determine the feasibility of dual-language automatic speech recognition (ASR) for identifying DLD in bilingual children.

Can You See My Screen? Virtual Assessment in Speech and Language.

Purpose: This introduction presents the Forum: Can You See My Screen? Virtual Assessment in Speech and Language. The goals of the forum are to document reliability and validity of assessment results conducted virtually, identify characteristics of measures that are suitable for online assessment, and provide clinical and research guidance for interpreting diagnostic results obtained in virtual settings.

Method: In this introduction, we provide an overview of the research completed by nine teams, who submitted research articles and notes on a variety of topics pertinent to the theme of telehealth assessments.

A Longitudinal Investigation of the Semantic Receptive-Expressive Gap in Spanish-English Bilingual Children.

Purpose: Although a appears to be a universal feature of early bilingualism, little is known about its development. We sought to determine if the magnitude of the discrepancy between receptive and expressive standard scores changed over time in bilingual children's two languages.

Method: In this longitudinal study, standardized receptive and expressive semantics tests of 106 Spanish-English bilingual children with TD were taken at kindergarten and first grade in both English and Spanish.

From a Distance: Comparison of In-Person and Virtual Assessments With Adult-Child Dyads From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds.

Purpose: Our proof-of-concept study tested the feasibility of virtual testing using child assessments that were originally validated for in-person testing only.

Method: Ten adult-child dyads were assigned to complete both in-person and virtual tests of language, cognition, and narratives. Child participants fell between the ages of 4 and 8 years; adult participants were speech-language clinicians or researchers with experience in administering child assessments.

Treatment for Anomia in Bilingual Speakers with Progressive Aphasia.

Anomia is an early and prominent feature of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and other neurodegenerative disorders. Research investigating treatment for lexical retrieval impairment in individuals with progressive anomia has focused primarily on monolingual speakers, and treatment in bilingual speakers is relatively unexplored. In this series of single-case experiments, 10 bilingual speakers with progressive anomia received lexical retrieval treatment designed to engage relatively spared cognitive-linguistic abilities and promote word retrieval.

Phonological predictors of nonword repetition performance in bilingual children.

Introduction: Previous research (Gibson et al., 2015; Summers, Bohman, Gillam, Peña & Bedore, 2010) has suggested an advantage in Spanish over English on nonword repetition tasks with Spanish-English bilingual children. However, comparing nonwords of equal syllable lengths across languages may not sufficiently account for phonological differences across languages.

English BESA Morphosyntax Performance Among Spanish-English Bilinguals Who Use African American English.

Purpose This study examined the use of African American English (AAE) among a group of young Latinx bilingual children and the accuracy of the English Morphosyntax subtest of the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA) in classifying these children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Children ( = 81) between the ages of 4;0 and 7;1 (years;months) completed a narrative task and the BESA Morphosyntax subtest. We identified DLD based on four reference measures.

Factors influencing US speech and language therapists' use of technology for clinical practice.

Background: There is an increasing number of technological resources available to speech and language therapists (SLTs) for use in clinical practice, but the factors that influence SLTs' selection and use of such resources are not well understood. In related fields, technology acceptance models have been employed to explain users' adoption of technology and to inform the advancement of empirically supported technological resources.

Aims: To determine the factors that influence SLTs' use of technology for clinical practice by testing a model of their technology acceptance and use.

Insights Into Category Sorting Flexibility in Bilingual Children: Results of a Cognitive Lab Study.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore how bilingual children shift sets to gain flexibility when forming categories. Using a cognitive lab approach focused on understanding how learners approach problems, we asked children to sort 10 sets of pictures representing common objects in two different ways and to explain their rationale for the sort. We explored the relationship between age and language use on their performance.

Longitudinal evidence for simultaneous bilingual language development with shifting language dominance, and how to explain it.

Theories of how language works have shifted from rule-like competence accounts to more skill-like incremental learning accounts. Under these, people acquire language incrementally, through practice, and may even lose it incrementally as they acquire competing mappings. Incremental learning implies that (1) a bilingual's abilities in their languages should depend on how much they practice each (not merely age of acquisition), and (2) using an L2 more could cause a bilingual to gradually 'unlearn' their L1.

The Utility of an English Semantics Measure for Identifying Developmental Language Disorder in Spanish-English Bilinguals.

Purpose We examined the English semantic performance of three hundred twenty-seven 7- to 10-year-old Spanish-English bilinguals with ( = 66) and without ( = 261) developmental language disorder (DLD) with varying levels of English experience to classify groups. Method English semantic performance on the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment-Middle Extension Experimental Test Version (Peña et al., 2008) was evaluated by language experience, language ability, and task type.

Language and Literacy Together: Supporting Grammatical Development in Dual Language Learners With Risk for Language and Learning Difficulties.

Purpose Early Interventions in Reading (Vaughn et al., 2006), the only literacy intervention with demonstrated effectiveness for U.S.

"Did I Say ?" Error Patterns on a Blocked Cyclic Naming Task for Bilingual Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder.

Purpose Using a blocked cyclic picture-naming task, we compared accuracy and error patterns across languages for Spanish-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Pictured stimuli were manipulated for semantic similarity across two (Same and Mixed) category contexts. Children's productions were scored off-line for accuracy, error frequency, and error type.

Identifying Developmental Language Disorder in School age Bilinguals: Semantics, Grammar, and Narratives.

Children with Developmental language disorder (DLD) have particular difficulty learning language despite otherwise general normal development. When school age bilingual children struggle with language, a common question is if the difficulties they present reflect lack of ability or lack of language experience. To address the question of identification of DLD in the context of bilingualism, we explore the diagnostic accuracy of measures administered in two languages.