ASSESSMENT ISSUES WHEN WORKING WITH A BILINGUAL CHILD

ASSESSMENT ISSUES
• Why do we need a thorough assessment?
• What are the aims of assessment?
• What do we assess?
• How do we assess?
• Who assesses the need of a bilingual child?
• What practice limitations can we face?
• Interpretation of results.
• Differential diagnosis: Working with bilingual clients.
• Additional general information that may be needed with English as an Additional Language (EAL) child.

WHY DO WE NEED A THOROUGH ASSESSMENT?
False Positive – Bilal aged 6;00 whose home language is Urdu was assessed for a bilingual assessment. He has a statement because of learning difficulties and behaviour problems at school. The Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) assessed him in English and reported that Bilal has a language disorder. However following a joint assessment with school he was identified as having an EAL problem and not a language problem.

False Negative – A 7 year old Turkish boy was referred to the Speech and Language Therapy Service by school. School felt he had difficulties due to an EAL issue, but he had genuine language problems in both languages. He was diagnosed as having a significant language disorder.

WHAT ARE THE AIMS OF ASSESSMENT?
The assessment needs of a bilingual child are essentially the same as those of a monolingual child, regardless of the languages spoken by the child. The aim of an assessment of communication abilities remain the same. The reasons for assessment are as follows:

• The main aim of assessing a bilingual child is to differentially diagnose whether there is a difficulty in learning both the home language and English, or a difficulty in learning English as a second language.

• To investigate the child’s communication abilities in one or more specified areas of language, i.e. phonology, lexicon, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, voice, non-verbal, communication.

• To help decide whether speech and language therapy intervention is required and/or a referral is needed to other agencies.

• To provide a baseline for the commencement of a therapy programme.

• To describe the child’s speech and language skills in the term of their linguistic ability, medical, cognitive, psychological factors and social network status, providing clear aims and objectives for appropriate management.

• To identify the child’s education/social needs in relation to communicative abilities, so that the necessary resources can be organised to support the child in school/home and in the community.

WHAT DO WE ASSESS
• Assessing a child’s vocabulary and grammar in both languages are important.
• Functional language skills of the child are also important in both languages.
• Assessing pragmatic and conversational skills build up a child’s profile of activities and performance, strengths and weaknesses, e.g. a child’s ability to seek clarification in school/home, ability to take turns in a conversation or in a game following the routine of the school day.

HOW DO WE ASSESS
• Detailed case history.
• Formal and informal assessments.
• Gathering data from other professionals

INFORMATION FROM A DETAILED CASE HISTORY
• Establish aetiological factors.
• Establish if there are any environmental factors, e.g. in Asian families the grandmother/grandfather may be the head of the family.
• Provide significant information especially in view of the lack of language assessment materials there are available in languages other than English.
• Obtain information about the constraints of variables, e.g. a family can speak a different language but cannot read it. That will need to be adjusted to, for effective and efficient support and intervention, e.g. leaflets.

Please see additional case history. If this form is used or adapted in any way please ensure the original source is referenced.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
• It is important to involve parents/carers.
• Who speaks which language to whom and when?
• What languages are used by individual members of the immediate family with the child?
• What languages does the child reply in?
• If any, which language can the child read or write?

FORMAL ASSESSMENTS
Standardised tests which are usually used by Speech and Language Therapists, Educational Psychologists and Teachers have limitations for assessing young children who are EAL learners and from diverse cultural backgrounds.

• Standardising an English language developmental test on first language English speakers means that the norms for language development cannot extend to second language English speakers/learners.

• Linguistic Mismatches -Translating formal English assessments into other languages is inappropriate and inaccurate because the linguistic term in English may translate into a different linguistic form in the other language. This may emerge developmentally at a different stage in that language.

• Culture Mismatches - The cultural references of the English tests reflect the lifestyle of the “white middle class” majority in the UK, e.g.

• Asking a child to “put the spoon in the cup” (Reynell Developmental Language Scales). This is an obvious association for a child from the ‘white’ majority culture but a more obscure association for a child from a different culture background where teaspoons are not associated with teacups.

• Using pigs in the same assessment are not appropriate for the Muslim child.

• Children from some cultures may not be used to testing situations and will vary in their familiarity with a test situation. This could influence their performance.

• Some tests have been modified linguistically and culturally, e.g. Sentence Comprehension Test - Punjabi Version (Gibbs, Duncan and Wheldal). This is a receptive test for children aged between 3;00 and 5;06.

• Some have been designed for a specific bilingual population, e.g. Sandwell Bilingual Screening Test aims to screen the expressive grammar of English and Punjabi children aged between 6;00 and 9;00.

• Important Issues - When first language English assessments are used for second language English speaker, one should not give standard scores or percentiles. The result can be described in detailed reports.

INFORMAL ASSESSMENTS
The most representative language samples are obtained in a variety of natural settings, e.g. home, playgroup and with at least two different “communicative partners”, e.g. parents/carers, nursery key workers, siblings.
• Use informal/natural communication.
• Use picture books/toys.
• Observe parent-child interaction.

GATHERING DATA FROM OTHER PROFESSIONALS
• Class teachers
• Education Psychologists
• Nursery Key Workers
• Health Visitors
• Social Workers

WHO ASSESSES THE NEEDS OF A BILINGUAL CHILD?
It is important to work with other professionals and parents/carers in order to meet the needs of the bilingual child with SLT difficulties.
• SLT
• Parents/Carers
• Teachers
• Education Psychologists
• Paediatricians
• Health Visitors
• Bilingual Co-Workers/Interpreters

WHAT PRACTICAL LIMITATIONS CAN WE FACE
• Language barriers.
• Lack of resources.
• Financial costs, time.
• Lack of trained bilingual personnel.
• Limited information about developmental features available or languages other than English.
• Few standardised tests.
• Uniqueness of each child’s “bilingual” language ability.
• Dialect variations.
• Insufficient culture information on family relationships, attitudes to ‘disability’, attitudes towards discourse, language functions and literacy.

INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
• Apply your theoretical knowledge.
• Code switching.
• Interference, e.g. environment.
• Look at the child’s various linguistic levels across all languages to give a complete picture of the child’s linguistic abilities.
• It is important to note that the bilingual child’s language proficiency is not like that of a monolingual natural speaker.
• When collecting data put it into perspective of the child and their environment. If necessary obtain more data.

DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS: WORKING WITH BILINGUAL CLIENTS
• It is important to assess a bilingual child in both languages.
• Clarification of a language delay/disorder versus EAL is essential for the client, the service and other professional agencies.
• A disorder is present when the communicative pattern interferes with the ability to convey messages clearly and effectively. A child who has limited English language proficiency should not be considered to have a speech and language disorder, if the communicative pattern reflects the child’s limited experiences in using the English language.
• Some of the behaviours indicative of communication disorder in bilingual children are that:
• The child rarely initiates verbal interaction.
• The child does not engage in dialogue.
• Uses lots of gestures.
• Makes no/limited responses when others initiate.
• Observations must take place within natural context and with peers.

TESTS FOR BILINGUAL CHILDREN