The purpose of this thesis was to administer a survey to obtain information on Data was collected from 89 surveys. Data analyses showed that students and SLPs with a strong educational background on bilingualism had a tendency to prefer answers that correspond to recent research findings on bilingualism than students and SLPs with no or little educational background on bilingualism. These results suggest that academic iv background on bilingualism guides assessment interpretations and treatment options of

Purpose The purpose of this scoping review was to identify current measures used to evaluate the language abilities of multilingual preschoolers within the framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health–Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY; World Health Organization, 2007 ). Method This review adhered to established models for conducting a comprehensive, iterative scoping review outlined by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) and Levac, Colquhoun, and O'Brien (2010) and included the following phases: (a) articulating the research question; (b) identifying relevant studies; (c) selecting studies; (d) charting the data; and (e) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. The ICF-CY was used to frame the identified measures ( World Health Organization, 2007 ). Results Three hundred twenty-five peer-reviewed publications were identified and included in this review. The majority of publications used measures that evaluated the activity component of multilingual preschoolers' language (70%), with few evaluating participation (9%). Most identified measures (73%) assessed children's semantic language skills. We also observed that 88% of studies explicitly measured children's language input to interpret assessment results. Conclusions A variety of measures are currently used that address the activity component of the ICF-CY with a particular emphasis on semantics. There is, however, a dearth of measures examining language abilities for participation. The authors strongly recommend an increased focus on the development, use, and evaluation of measures that explicitly assess multilingual preschoolers' language participation, particularly in school-based settings. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8637206

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Purpose: The aim of this study was to characterize speech acoustics in bilingual preschoolers who speak Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. We compared a standard approach with a culturally responsive approach for characterizing speech sound productions. Preschoolers' speech productions were compared to adult models from the same linguistic community as a means for providing confirmatory evidence of typical speech patterns specific to JC–English speakers. Method: Two protocols were applied to the data collected using the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP) Articulation subtest: (a) the standardized DEAP protocol and (b) a culturally and linguistically adapted protocol reflective of the Jamaican post-Creole (English to Creole) continuum. The protocols were used to analyze responses from JC-English–speaking preschoolers ( n = 119) and adults ( n = 15). Responses were analyzed using acoustic (voice onset time, whole-word duration, and vowel duration) and perceptual (percentage of consonant correct–revised and response frequencies) measures. Results: The culturally responsive protocol captured variation in the frequency and acoustic differences produced in the post-Creole continuum, with higher amounts of “other” responses compared to “standard” target responses for both children and adults. Adults' whole-word durations were shorter and showed more consistent prevoicing during initial plosives compared to the children. Conclusions: Applying culturally responsive methods, including knowledge of the variation produced in the post-Creole continuum and with adult models from the same linguistic community, improved the ecological validity of speech characterizations for JC–English preschoolers. Acoustic properties of speech should be investigated further as a means of describing bilingual development and distinguishing between difference and disorder. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20249382

Purpose: This study examined the speech acoustic characteristics of Jamaican Creole (JC) and English in bilingual preschoolers and adults using acoustic duration measures. The aims were to determine if, for JC and English, (a) child and adult acoustic duration characteristics differ, (b) differences occur in preschoolers' duration patterns based on the language spoken, and (c) relationships exist between the preschoolers' personal contextual factors (i.e., age, sex, and percentage of language [%language] exposure and use) and acoustic duration. Method: Data for this cross-sectional study were collected in Kingston, Jamaica, and New York City, New York, United States, during 2013–2019. Participants included typically developing simultaneous bilingual preschoolers ( n = 120, ages 3;4–5;11 [years;months]) and adults ( n = 15, ages 19;0–54;4) from the same linguistic community. Audio recordings of single-word productions of JC and English were collected through elicited picture-based tasks and used for acoustic analysis. Durational features (voice onset time [VOT], vowel duration, whole-word duration, and the proportion of vowel to whole-word duration) were measured using Praat, a speech analysis software program. Results: JC-English–speaking children demonstrated developing speech motor control through differences in durational patterns compared with adults, including VOT for voiced plosives. Children's VOT, vowel duration, and whole-word duration were produced similarly across JC and English. The contextual factor %language use was predictive of vowel and whole-word duration in English. Conclusions: The findings from this study contribute to a foundation of understanding typical bilingual speech characteristics and motor development as well as schema in JC–English speakers. In particular, minimal acoustic duration differences were observed across the post-Creole continuum, a feature that may be attributed to the JC–English bilingual environment. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21760469