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The contribution of bilingualism, parental education, and school characteristics to performance on the clinical evaluation of language fundamentals : Fourth edition, Swedish

Andersson, Ketty LU orcid ; Hansson, Kristina LU orcid ; Rosqvist, Ida LU orcid ; Åhlander, Viveka Lyberg LU ; Sahlén, Birgitta LU and Sandgren, Olof LU orcid (2019) In Frontiers in Psychology 10.
Abstract

Assessment of bilingual children in only one language fails to acknowledge their distributed linguistic competence and has been shown to overidentify language disorder in bilingual populations. However, other factors, sometimes associated with bilingualism, may also contribute to low results in language assessments. Our aim was to examine the impact of these factors on language abilities. We used the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - Fourth Edition, Swedish (CELF-4) to investigate core language abilities of 224 7- to 8-year-old children. Results showed 30 and 80% of monolinguals and bilinguals, respectively, performing more than 1 SD below the normative sample mean, calling into question the clinical utility of the test.... (More)

Assessment of bilingual children in only one language fails to acknowledge their distributed linguistic competence and has been shown to overidentify language disorder in bilingual populations. However, other factors, sometimes associated with bilingualism, may also contribute to low results in language assessments. Our aim was to examine the impact of these factors on language abilities. We used the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - Fourth Edition, Swedish (CELF-4) to investigate core language abilities of 224 7- to 8-year-old children. Results showed 30 and 80% of monolinguals and bilinguals, respectively, performing more than 1 SD below the normative sample mean, calling into question the clinical utility of the test. However, participant and school characteristics provided a deeper understanding of the skewed results. In isolation, bilingualism predicted 38% of the variance in the CELF-4 Core scores. With level of parental education entered the variance explained by the model increased to 52%, but the unique contribution of bilingualism was reduced to 20%. Finally, with information added on school characteristics and enrollment in the school's recreation center the model explained an additional two percent, with the unique contribution of bilingualism further reduced to 9%. The results indicate an increased risk for low results on the CELF-4 Core when children present with multiple risk factors. This highlights the need to look beyond bilingualism in language assessment of bilingual children and adolescents and to consider other explanations to academic struggle. Available interventions must be considered and applied proportionately to their respective impact on the individual's development.

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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Academic achievement, Bilingualism, Language assessment, Language disorder, Language exposure
in
Frontiers in Psychology
volume
10
article number
1586
publisher
Frontiers Media S. A.
external identifiers
  • scopus:85069503176
  • pmid:31379654
ISSN
1664-1078
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01586
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
93cc806d-a3c6-4396-acb9-4947554b4761
date added to LUP
2019-08-09 11:03:16
date last changed
2024-06-26 00:27:48
@article{93cc806d-a3c6-4396-acb9-4947554b4761,
  abstract     = {{<p>Assessment of bilingual children in only one language fails to acknowledge their distributed linguistic competence and has been shown to overidentify language disorder in bilingual populations. However, other factors, sometimes associated with bilingualism, may also contribute to low results in language assessments. Our aim was to examine the impact of these factors on language abilities. We used the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - Fourth Edition, Swedish (CELF-4) to investigate core language abilities of 224 7- to 8-year-old children. Results showed 30 and 80% of monolinguals and bilinguals, respectively, performing more than 1 SD below the normative sample mean, calling into question the clinical utility of the test. However, participant and school characteristics provided a deeper understanding of the skewed results. In isolation, bilingualism predicted 38% of the variance in the CELF-4 Core scores. With level of parental education entered the variance explained by the model increased to 52%, but the unique contribution of bilingualism was reduced to 20%. Finally, with information added on school characteristics and enrollment in the school's recreation center the model explained an additional two percent, with the unique contribution of bilingualism further reduced to 9%. The results indicate an increased risk for low results on the CELF-4 Core when children present with multiple risk factors. This highlights the need to look beyond bilingualism in language assessment of bilingual children and adolescents and to consider other explanations to academic struggle. Available interventions must be considered and applied proportionately to their respective impact on the individual's development.</p>}},
  author       = {{Andersson, Ketty and Hansson, Kristina and Rosqvist, Ida and Åhlander, Viveka Lyberg and Sahlén, Birgitta and Sandgren, Olof}},
  issn         = {{1664-1078}},
  keywords     = {{Academic achievement; Bilingualism; Language assessment; Language disorder; Language exposure}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  publisher    = {{Frontiers Media S. A.}},
  series       = {{Frontiers in Psychology}},
  title        = {{The contribution of bilingualism, parental education, and school characteristics to performance on the clinical evaluation of language fundamentals : Fourth edition, Swedish}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01586}},
  doi          = {{10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01586}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}