Utilizing Comprehensive Preassessment Procedures for Differentiating Language Difference From Language Impairment in English Learners

Abstract

The growing number of English Learners (ELs) in American schools has led to increasing referrals of these students for special education, including speech-language services. These ELs are frequently overidentified as having a language impairment (LI) due to biased assessment practices that are not legal or grounded in research promoting best practices. This article describes a comprehensive preassessment process that should be used with ELs before formal testing takes place. This process consists of four steps: (a) assess language proficiency in all languages, (b) gather a case history with a focus on language development milestones in the first language, (c) interview multiple individuals in the child’s school setting and ascertain whether or not they agree that the student is manifesting any of the universal indicators of LI, and (d) implement a comprehensive response to intervention (RtI) process to determine the student’s ability to profit from instruction. Use of a comprehensive preassessment process will accomplish two objectives: help reduce the overidentification of ELs as having LI and other special needs and promote academic success for these students.

Language skills and well-being in early childhood education and care: a cross-sectional exploration in a Swedish context

“…In contrast, vocabulary measures in the majority language for additional language learners may be unsuitable as a measure to identify children in need of support, when compared to monolingual norms (Boerma et al, 2016;Blom and Boerma, 2020;Shiro and Hoff, 2021). The identification of children in need of support is particularly complicated among additional language learners, and this has been acknowledged in both Europe (Bloder et al, 2021) and the United States (Roseberry-McKibbin, 2021)., where both over-and under-identification may have negative consequences for the individual and for an equitable allocation of resources (Tomblin et al, 1997). To conclude, vocabulary competence may influence narrative skills (Uccelli and Páez, 2007), but narrative assessment seems to exert less bias for bilinguals than vocabulary measures do, when aiming to identify children in need of support (Paradis et al, 2013;Boerma et al, 2016;Blom and Boerma, 2020).…”

Speech–Language Pathology Graduate Students' Questioning Strategies for English Learners in a Simulation Environment

“…There is an abundance of literature in speech–language pathology and in related disciplines that discusses the challenges faced by bilingual children who are typically developing but are classified as speech–language impaired (causing overidentification of disabilities) or bilingual children with genuine language impairments who are considered typically developing (causing underidentification of disabilities) (Arias & Friberg, 2017; Castilla-Earls et al, 2020; Lugo-Neris et al, 2015; Rosa-Lugo et al, 2020; Roseberry-McKibben, 2021; Whitmire et al, 2014). The combination of these two problems, known as “disproportionality,” often results in inappropriate placement or intervention (Levey et al, 2020).…”

Preparing Special Education Teachers to Affirm LGBTQ+ Students and Themselves

“…Special education has long been trying to reckon with systems that lack the ability to deal adequately with diversity. The disproportionate representation of African American students (e.g., Cruz & Rodl, 2018) and the unpacking of language differences from language disability among students from diverse language backgrounds (e.g., Roseberry-McKibbin, 2021) are both ways in which our institutionalized systems struggle to match our evolving world. LGBTQ+ students represent another group which has been minoritized in our field and to which special education systems need to attend.…”