This study examined behavioral and neurophysiological indices of discrimination of an English vowel contrast [ɪ–ɛ] by early and late bilingual Spanish–English speakers, compared to monolingual English speakers. Electrophysiological measures (Mismatched Negativity – MMN) and behavioral measures (AX discrimination and forced-choice identification) were employed to examine perception of a nine-step vowel continuum, re-synthesized from natural tokens. Results revealed that (i) both monolingual and early bilinguals showed similar behavioral perception while late bilinguals performed more poorly on all behavioral tasks; and (ii) monolinguals showed robust evidence of discrimination (MMN) at a pre-attentive level that was significantly larger than found for either early or late bilinguals. These findings suggested that early input of English vowels to bilinguals did not necessarily lead to robust, automatic processing, as measured at a more attention-independent neural level; but earlier experience with a second language allowed for native-like speech perception measured with behavioral tasks.

Neurophysiological studies of infant speech suggest that mismatch responses (MMRs) have predictive value for later language. Their value, however, is diminished because unexplained differences in the MMR patterns are seen across studies. The current study aimed to identify the functional nature of infant MMRs by recording event-related-potentials (ERPs) to an infrequent English vowel change in internal or final positions of a sequence of ten vowels in six-month-old monolingually- and bilingually-exposed infants. Increased negativity of the MMR (infrequent minus frequent) was found in final compared to internal positions and correlated with an index of increased attention to the final position. This pattern helps explain the overall greater negativity to the speech sounds in the bilingually-exposed female infants. These findings substantially advance our understanding of neural indices of speech perception development and show promise for furthering our understanding of bilingual language development.

An increasing number of deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) children live in homes where languages other than English or American Sign Language (ASL) are used. This chapter reviews issues of culture and linguistic diversity when working with D/HH multilingual learners (DMLs) from identification and early intervention through school entry. The authors will provide two case studies to explore the issues of service delivery to DMLs and their families: 1) Ji-Hun, who appears to use several spoken languages, including Korean, Japanese, and English, and 2) Ana, who is a recent immigrant to the USA and appears to use ASL, spoken Spanish, and spoken English. The discussion of these two case studies will encompass some cultural differences, including 1) openness to engagement with providers, 2) cultural beliefs about hearing loss, 3) community systems and familiar support, 4) perceptions of systems and authorities. The case studies presented are not based on actual clients but are drawn from the clinical experiences of the authors.

Objectives: To examine maturation of neural discriminative responses to an English vowel contrast from infancy to 4 years of age and to determine how biological factors (age and sex) and an experiential factor (amount of Spanish versus English input) modulate neural discrimination of speech. Design: Event-related potential (ERP) mismatch responses (MMRs) were used as indices of discrimination of the American English vowels [ε] versus [I] in infants and children between 3 months and 47 months of age. A total of 168 longitudinal and cross-sectional data sets were collected from 98 children (Bilingual Spanish–English: 47 male and 31 female sessions; Monolingual English: 48 male and 42 female sessions). Language exposure and other language measures were collected. ERP responses were examined in an early time window (160 to 360 msec, early MMR [eMMR]) and late time window (400 to 600 msec, late MMR). Results: The eMMR became more negative with increasing age. Language experience and sex also influenced the amplitude of the eMMR. Specifically, bilingual children, especially bilingual females, showed more negative eMMR compared with monolingual children and with males. However, the subset of bilingual children with more exposure to English than Spanish compared with those with more exposure to Spanish than English (as reported by caretakers) showed similar amplitude of the eMMR to their monolingual peers. Age was the only factor that influenced the amplitude of the late MMR. More negative late MMR was observed in older children with no difference found between bilingual and monolingual groups. Conclusions: Consistent with previous studies, our findings revealed that biological factors (age and sex) and language experience modulated the amplitude of the eMMR in young children. The early negative MMR is likely to be the mismatch negativity found in older children and adults. In contrast, the late MMR amplitude was influenced only by age and may be equivalent to the Nc in infants and to the late negativity observed in some auditory passive oddball designs.