Parental estimates of language use and language proficiency are useful for predicting the phonological skills of bilingual Spanish- and English-speaking children, and augmenting them with a direct measure of language ability as a predictor of segmental accuracy is desirable.

Phonological acquisition traditionally has been measured using constructs that focus on segments rather than the whole words. Findings from recent research have suggested whole-word productions be evaluated using measures such as phonological mean length of utterance (pMLU) and the proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP). These measures have been investigated mainly in typically-developing children, but their use with children with speech sound disorders has been limited. This study compares PMLU, PWP, and consonant accuracy in Spanish-English bilinguals with speech sound disorders (SSD) to age-matched monolingual peers. This study relates directly to the type of research that Adele Miccio favoured. First, it is focusing on bilingual children. For the past 5 years, she has been the principal investigator of a grant developing a comprehensive phonological assessment tool for bilingual speakers. Second, during her career, Miccio advocated using multiple analyses to gauge the phonological skills of children, especially those with speech sound disorders. Her work in stimulability is evidence of that perspective. This study examines one 'raditional' measure (consonant accuracy) and two newer ones (pMLU and PWP), thereby broadening the analyses of phonological skills in bilingual children with SSD and thus carrying out multiple analyses, just as Miccio recommended throughout her illustrious career.

Purpose The objective of this study was to examine tap production by English language learners (ELLs) in kindergarten whose 1st language is Spanish. The conflicting status of tap in Spanish and English could present challenges for allophonic learning in 2nd language for ELLs. Prior research has evaluated acquisition of other allophone pairs, but none has focused exclusively on tap. Method Thirty ELLs, 30 English monolinguals, and 29 Spanish monolinguals participated in the study. Participants completed a single-word repetition task in which numerous opportunities to produce tap were provided. Productions were phonetically transcribed and analyzed. Results The great majority of taps were pronounced correctly in both languages. The allophonic status of tap in English and phonemic status in Spanish suggest ELLs could experience negative transfer in learning; however, this was not observed. A significant interaction indicated more t/d substitutions in English and more semivowel/liquid substitutions in Spanish, contradicting the expectation of negative transfer. ELLs were also significantly more accurate at producing tap in Spanish than English. Conclusion Findings suggest that, at early kindergarten, ELL children rapidly adapted to English patterns of tap production even though Spanish and English conflict in phonemic/allophonic status of tap. This study was preliminary, and further investigation is warranted.