A 3-year longitudinal investigation of the overlap and stability of English and French word reading difficulties in French immersion children.

Extensive research has demonstrated the importance of struggling reader identification in monolingual children Compton et al. (Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 327-340, 2010). However, very few studies have explored identification of struggling readers in bilinguals.

Word-initial trill clusters in children with typical versus protracted phonological development: Bulgarian.

The current paper describes acquisition of word-initial (WI) trilled /r/ in clusters and as a singleton in 60 Bulgarian 3-5-year-olds with typically developing (TD) versus protracted phonological development (PPD). A native speaker audio-recorded and transcribed single-word responses to a picture-naming task (110 words) that included eight words with WI rhotic clusters and two with WI singleton /r/. Accuracy was significantly higher in the TD groups and for the PPD groups, by age.

Professional practices and opinions about services available to bilingual children with developmental disabilities: An international study.

This study aimed to gather information from school- and clinic-based professionals about their practices and opinions pertaining to the provision of bilingual supports to students with developmental disabilities. Using an online survey, data were collected in six socio-culturally and linguistically diverse locations across four countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. In total, 361 surveys were included in the analysis from respondents who were primarily teachers and speech-language pathologists working in schools, daycares/preschools, or community-based clinics.

A multi-site review of policies affecting opportunities for children with developmental disabilities to become bilingual.

This review of special education and language-in-education policies at six sites in four countries (Canada, United States, United Kingdom, and Netherlands) aimed to determine the opportunities for bilingualism provided at school for children with developmental disabilities (DD). While research has demonstrated that children with DD are capable of learning more than one language (see Kay Raining Bird, Genesee, & Verhoeven, this issue), it was not clear whether recent policies reflect these findings. The review, conducted using the same protocol across sites, showed that special education policies rarely addressed second language learning explicitly.

A Case Study on Vocal Loudness With a Young Adult With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Delay.

Purpose: This clinical focus article describes an exploratory case study addressing reduction of vocal loudness in a young adult with a history of autism spectrum disorder and developmental delay. The need for a short-term pullout individual intervention arose from his participation in the Advancing Language and Literacy group, a program that provides support for enhancement of speech, language, and literacy skills for young adults with developmental disabilities.

Method: The participant attended individual treatment sessions weekly for 9 sessions, all of which were digitally audio-recorded.

Speech assessment of Chinese-English bilingual children: accent versus developmental level.

The study aimed to evaluate the phonological profiles of Chinese-English bilingual children in primary grades relative to those of English monolinguals, and to compare these profiles with speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') ratings of children's speech in terms of accent or developmental level. Participants were 29 Chinese-English bilinguals and 25 English-monolingual children. Speech samples were collected using the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2, either a Cantonese or Mandarin phonology test, and three sentences in a delayed repetition task.

Brief report: An exploratory study of lexical skills in bilingual children with autism spectrum disorder.

Studying lexical diversity in bilingual children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can contribute important information to our understanding of language development in this diverse population. In this exploratory study, lexical comprehension and production and overall language skills were investigated in 14 English-Chinese bilingual and 14 English monolingual preschool-age children with ASD. Results indicated that both groups had equivalent scores on all but one measure of language and vocabulary, including English production vocabulary, conceptual production vocabulary, and vocabulary comprehension.

Phonological awareness skills in the two languages of Mandarin-English bilingual children.

A number of studies have shown that bilingual children have an advantage when performing on phonological awareness tasks, particularly in their stronger language. Little research has been done to date, examining the effects of bilingualism on both languages of bilingual children. In this study Mandarin-English bilingual children's performance on phonological awareness tests was compared with that of Mandarin monolingual children and English monolingual children.