Abstract
Purpose: Although language samples and standardized tests are regularly used in assessment, few studies provide clinical guidance on how to synthesize information from these testing tools. This study extends previous work on the relations between tests and language samples to a new population—school-age bilingual speakers with primary language impairment—and considers the clinical implications for bilingual assessment. Method: Fifty-one bilingual children with primary language impairment completed narrative language samples and standardized language tests in English and Spanish. Children were separated into younger (ages 5;6 [years; months]–8;11) and older (ages 9;0–11;2) groups. Analysis included correlations with age and partial correlations between language sample measures and test scores in each language. Results: Within the younger group, positive correlations with large effect sizes indicated convergence between test scores and microstructural language sample measures in both Spanish and English. There were minimal correlations in the older group for either language. Age related to English but not Spanish measures. Conclusions: Tests and language samples complement each other in assessment. Wordless picture-book narratives may be more appropriate for ages 5–8 than for older children. We discuss clinical implications, including a case example of a bilingual child with primary language impairment, to illustrate how to synthesize information from these tools in assessment.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 42-55 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Language, speech, and hearing services in schools |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Data collection for this project was supported by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grant R21DC010868 (awarded to Kathryn Kohnert), and manuscript preparation was supported by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grant R03DC013760 (awarded to Kerry Danahy Ebert). Portions of the analysis were presented in an unpublished master's thesis by Angela Mammolito. We thank Kathryn Ficho and Andrea Morales for assistance with languagesample analysis, as well as the many student research assistants who assisted with data collection for this project. The contributions of Jill Rentmeester Disher and the Minneapolis Public School District were invaluable to this project. We wish finally to thank the participants and their families.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.