Acceso usuarios
Andrea A. N. MacLeod
Distinguishing between a language difference due to dialect, learning additional language(s), and a developmental language disorder is important to provide equitable access to educational supports, yet is difficult in practice. Previous research has identified three main tasks (i.e. narrative, non-word repetition, and parent report) that are sensitive to developmental language disorder but less sensitive to language learning background. The current study applied an Integrated Knowledge Transfer approach and explored how these three measures could identify language learning profiles within a multilingual group of kindergarten-aged children in a French-language context. A total of 110 kindergarten-aged children participated in this study, including 22 children who were recruited based on being identified as having a developmental language disorder by a school or community speech-language therapist. While these two groups of children were not significantly different based on measures of the amount of language exposure, age of exposure to the language of school, or vocabulary in the language of school, a k-means cluster analysis identified three profiles based on narrative macrostructure, non-word repetition, and parent report. By understanding these language profiles, educators will be better positioned to provide equitable supports to linguistically diverse children and their families.
