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Background Complex syntax is affected by developmental language disorder (DLD) during the school years. Targeting areas of syntactic difficulty for children with DLD may yield useful assessment techniques. Aims To determine whether wh‐movement can be measured in language samples from typically developing mono‐ and bilingual school‐aged children, and, if so, to provide preliminary evidence of validity by comparison with traditional measures of syntax in a cross‐sectional, known‐groups design. Methods & Procedures Participants were 48 typically developing children recruited from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia in four groups: monolingual English and bilingual French–English children in early (7–8 years of age) and late (11–12 years of age) elementary school. Language samples were collected and analysed with mean use of wh‐movement, mean length of utterance and clausal density. These measures were compared for effects of age, bilingual development and elicitation task. Outcomes & Results The results from all measures closely paralleled each other, providing preliminary evidence of validity. Wh‐movement‐based and traditional measures demonstrated similar age‐related and discourse genre effects. Neither demonstrated an effect of mono‐ versus bilingual development. Conclusions & Implications The results confirm research interest in syntactic movement as an area of language assessment. Further research is required to understand its application to clinical populations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created novel challenges in the assessment of children's speech and language. Collecting valid data is crucial for researchers and clinicians, yet the evidence on how data collection procedures can validly be adapted to an online format is sparse. The urgent need for online assessments has highlighted possible the barriers such as testing reliability and validity that clinicians face during implementation. The present study describes the adapted procedures for on-line assessments and compares the outcomes for monolingual and bilingual children of online and in-person testing using conversational, narrative and expository discourse samples and a standardized vocabulary test. A sample of 127 (103 in-person, 24 online) English monolinguals and 78 (53 in-person, 25 online) simultaneous French-English bilinguals aged 7–12 years were studied. Discourse samples were analyzed for productivity, proficiency, and syntactic complexity. MANOVAs were used to compare on-line and in-person testing contexts and age in two monolingual and bilingual school-age children. No differences across testing contexts were found for receptive vocabulary or narrative discourse. However, some modality differences were found for conversational and expository. The results from the study contribute to understanding how clinical assessment can be adapted for online format in school-aged children.

This study investigated access to and outcomes of Early French Immersion (EFI) for students with special education needs (SEN) attending a large school board in Canada. Data analysis was carried out on: provincially mandated achievement test scores for all Grade 3 students with SEN participating over a three-year period (n = 705) who attended either EFI or English programs; standardized French and English language and reading scores for a small subset of students (n = 20); and interviews with parents of Grade 4 students in EFI (n = 9). Results revealed lower participation but higher English academic and language performance for students with SEN in the EFI program as well as development of French language and reading skills. Interviewed parents often believed children with SEN ‘could not handle’ EFI and that withdrawal should be an option in response to learning difficulties. Implications for inclusive practices in EFI are discussed. Cette étude a examiné l’accès et les résultats des élèves ayant des besoins éducatifs spéciaux fréquentant un programme d’immersion française (EFI) d’un grand conseil scolaire au Canada. Les données analysées étaient : les résultats aux tests obligatoires de rendement scolaire pour tous les élèves de 3e année avec besoins spéciaux fréquentant un programme EFI ou anglais, sur une période de trois ans (n = 705); les scores aux tests standardisés du langage et de lecture en français et en anglais pour un petit sous-ensemble de ces élèves (n = 20); et des entrevues avec des parents d’élèves de 4e année en EFI (n = 9). Les résultats ont révélé une participation plus faible mais des performances académiques et linguistiques en anglais plus élevées pour les élèves ayant des besoins spéciaux du programme EFI et le développement des habiletés langagières et de lecture en français. Les parents interrogés pensaient souvent que les enfants ayant des besoins spéciaux «ne pouvaient pas gérer» la EFI et que le retrait du programme devrait être une option en réponse aux difficultés d’apprentissage. La discussion porte sur les retombées concernant les pratiques inclusives.

Children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (D/HH) learning in inclusive educational settings must be aware of how well they hear and understand spoken language to advocate for themselves. This study explored elementary-age children’s self-reported listening abilities using thematic analysis of brief interviews. Participants were 16 D/HH and 16 typically hearing (TH) 7- to 12-year-old monolingual English speakers. Children were asked about their ability to hear and understand the teacher, other students, and people in different environments. Findings showed surprising similarities across groups in terms of numbers of “no difficulty” responses and awareness of listening barriers related to speaker and environmental characteristics. Unsurprisingly, children who are D/HH were more likely to discuss hearing technologies and to attribute difficulties to their hearing abilities. Findings suggest that children who are D/HH with poor speech discrimination in noise abilities require support in developing awareness of and expressing difficulties with listening abilities.