Comprehensive Assessment Practices for Multilingual Children: A Focus on Jamaican Preschoolers

Comprehensive Assessment Practices for Multilingual Children: A Focus on Jamaican Preschoolers

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Karem, Rachel W.
Language:English
Published: University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK 2020
Subjects:
Speech Therapy
multilingual
bilingual
cultural and linguistic diversity
assessment
speech-language pathology
cultural competence
Online Access:http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613749097327192
id ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-ucin1613749097327192
record_format oai_dc
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
topic Speech Therapy
multilingual
bilingual
cultural and linguistic diversity
assessment
speech-language pathology
cultural competence
spellingShingle Speech Therapy
multilingual
bilingual
cultural and linguistic diversity
assessment
speech-language pathology
cultural competence
Karem, Rachel W.
Comprehensive Assessment Practices for Multilingual Children: A Focus on Jamaican Preschoolers
author Karem, Rachel W.
author_facet Karem, Rachel W.
author_sort Karem, Rachel W.
title Comprehensive Assessment Practices for Multilingual Children: A Focus on Jamaican Preschoolers
title_short Comprehensive Assessment Practices for Multilingual Children: A Focus on Jamaican Preschoolers
title_full Comprehensive Assessment Practices for Multilingual Children: A Focus on Jamaican Preschoolers
title_fullStr Comprehensive Assessment Practices for Multilingual Children: A Focus on Jamaican Preschoolers
title_full_unstemmed Comprehensive Assessment Practices for Multilingual Children: A Focus on Jamaican Preschoolers
title_sort comprehensive assessment practices for multilingual children: a focus on jamaican preschoolers
publisher University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK
publishDate 2020
url http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613749097327192
work_keys_str_mv AT karemrachelw comprehensiveassessmentpracticesformultilingualchildrenafocusonjamaicanpreschoolers
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spelling ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-ucin16137490973271922021-08-03T07:16:50Z Comprehensive Assessment Practices for Multilingual Children: A Focus on Jamaican Preschoolers Karem, Rachel W. Speech Therapy multilingual bilingual cultural and linguistic diversity assessment speech-language pathology cultural competence Without specific knowledge of multilingual language profiles, children speaking more than one language are at-risk for misdiagnosis of developmental language disorders by clinicians who do not share the same linguistic profile as the client. To combat such misdiagnosis, this dissertation presents three related studies. Study 1 was a scoping review completed to establish the current state of the field regarding practices amongst speech-language pathologists (SLPs) providing services to multilingual children. This review revealed the need for alternate scoring methods, appropriate for children who speak more than one language. SLPs should consider use of adult models to understand typical cross-linguistic interactions between languages to inform decisions of difference and disorder. In response to findings from Study 1, Study 2 described the creation and evaluation of an alternate method of scoring a standardized assessment to inform decisions about development of multilingual children’s English. One-hundred and seventy-six children (4-to-5 years) and 33 adults (24-to-51 years), from the same linguistic community, speaking Jamaican Creole (JC) and English participated. Content analysis of adult responses was used to identify linguistic patterns and alternate scoring procedures were developed based on these patterns. Results showed JC-English speaking children differed significantly from the standardized sample when original and alternate scoring methods were used. Patterns of over-diagnosis using traditional scoring were demonstrated and adapted scoring procedures using adult models offered an ecologically-valid approach to establishing developmental status of JC-English speaking children. Study 3 examined cross-linguistic interactions of JC-English speaking children in a different context relevant to assessing multilingual children’s language skills. In this study, cross-linguistic interactions in the spontaneous productions of JC-English speaking preschoolers were investigated. Participants were 61 JC-English bilingual preschoolers (4-to-5 years). The Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn) and token-based analyses were used to quantify and characterize preschoolers’ cross-linguistic interactions (i.e., within- and across-utterance patterns). Within-utterance cross-linguistic interactions identified using the IPSyn framework (Noun-Phrases, Verb-Phrases, Questions/Negation, Sentence-Structures) were present for more than 40% of linguistic structures in JC and English. Token-based analysis for within-and across-utterance analyses in spontaneous samples revealed which language domains most frequently underlie JC-English preschoolers’ cross-linguistic interactions. Syntax was most often involved in the JC context and then phonology in the English context. Children used cross-linguistic interactions more often in the JC context compared to English, with most cross-linguistic interactions occurring at the end of the language sample for both languages. Results from Study 3 provided specific knowledge regarding JC-English preschoolers’ cross-linguistic interactions in spontaneous speech. These findings are critical to increasing SLPs’ understanding of multilingual children’s language use. Findings from these studies serve to bridge the current gap in knowledge about multilingual language and clinical practice to help reduce misdiagnosis of disorder. Through a series of studies, this research documented systematic and feasible approaches and considerations applicable to assessing multilingual populations. This knowledge will assist educators, therapists, researchers, and administrators in making evidence-based service decisions. These findings provide researchers with directions to broaden theoretical understanding of development and disorder in multilingual children, especially in language pairings that have previously received little attention in research. 2020 English text University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613749097327192 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613749097327192 restricted--full text unavailable until 2022-03-19 This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

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