Exposure to English and Spanish may result in a higher English error rate in typically developing bilinguals, including the application of Spanish phonological properties to English. Slightly higher error rates are likely typical for bilingual preschool-aged children. Change over time at these time points for all 3 groups was similar, suggesting that all will reach an adult-like system in English with exposure and practice.

Purpose The goal of this project was to examine if there was a principled way to understand the nature of rehabilitation in bilingual aphasia such that patterns of acquisition and generalization are predictable and logical. Methods Seventeen Spanish-English bilinguals with aphasia participated in the therapy experiment. For each participant, three sets of stimuli were developed for each language: (a) English Set 1, (b) English Set 2 (semantically related to each item in English Set 1), (c) English Set 3 (unrelated control items), (d) Spanish Set 1 (translations of English Set 1), (e) Spanish Set 2 (translations of English Set 2; semantically related to each item in Spanish Set 1), and (f) Spanish Set 3 (translations of English Set 3; unrelated control items). A single subject experimental multiple baseline design across participants was implemented. Treatment was conducted in one language whereas generalization to within and between-language untrained items was examined. Results Treatment for naming on Set 1 items resulted in significant improvement (ES > 4.0) on the trained items in 14/17 participants. Of the 14 participants who showed improvement, within-language generalization to semantically related items was observed in 10 participants. Between-language generalization to the translations of trained items was observed for 5 participants; whereas between-language generalization to the translations of the untrained semantically related items was observed for 6 participants. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrate within and between-language patterns that are variable across participants, these differences are indicative of the interplay between facilitation (generalization) and inhibition.

We explored classification accuracy of English and Spanish versions of an experimental semantic language measure with functional monolingual bilingual children with and without language impairment. A total of 441 children participated, including 78 balanced bilinguals (15 with language impairment, 63 with typical development); 179 monolingual Spanish (36 with language impairment, 143 with typical development); and 183 monolingual English (49 with language impairment, 134 with typical development) children between 4;0 and 6;11 years. Cut points derived for functionally monolingual children were applied to bilinguals to assess the predictive accuracy of English and Spanish semantics. Correct classification of English monolinguals and Spanish monolinguals was 81%. Discriminant analysis yielded 76% and 90% correct classification for balanced bilingual children in English and Spanish respectively. This semantics-based measure has fair to good classification accuracy for functional monolinguals and for Spanish-English bilingual children when one language is tested.

Background Significant progress has been made in the identification of language impairment in children are bilingual. Bilingual children’s vocabulary knowledge may be distributed across languages. Thus, when testing bilingual children it is difficult to know how to weigh each language for diagnostic purposes. Even when conceptual scoring is used in vocabulary testing, bilingual children may score below that of their typical monolingual peers. Aims The primary aim was to evaluate the classification accuracy of two approaches (total semantics score and two-dimensional bilingual coordinate score) that combined lexical–semantic knowledge across two languages. We investigated the classification accuracy of the English and Spanish semantics subtest using the experimental version of the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment (BESA) with bilingual children with and without language impairment. Methods A total of 78 bilinguals with balanced exposure to English and Spanish (15 with language impairment, 63 with typical development) participated. Children were between 4;0 and 6;11 years old. Discriminant function analysis explored the extent to which these children were accurately classified when combining Spanish and English subtests. Outcomes & Results Discriminant analysis yielded above 85% correct classification for balanced bilingual children for both approaches. Conclusions & Implications For the most accurate assessment and diagnostic decision-making for bilinguals, approaches that consider both languages together are recommended.

Spanish phonological development was examined in six sequential bilingual children at the point of contact with English and eight months later. We explored effects of the English vowel and consonant inventory on Spanish. Children showed a significant increase in consonant cluster accuracy and in vowel errors. These emerging sequential bilingual children showed effects of English on their first language, Spanish. Cross-linguistic transfer did not affect all properties of the phonology equally. Negative transfer may occur in specific areas where the second language is more complex, requiring reorganization of the existing system, as in the transition from the Spanish five-vowel to the English eleven-vowel system.