Purpose: Twenty years ago, von Hapsburg and Peña (2002) wrote a tutorial that reviewed the literature on speech audiometry and bilingualism and outlined valuable recommendations to increase the rigor of the evidence base. This review article returns to that seminal tutorial to reflect on how that advice was applied over the last 20 years and to provide updated recommendations for future inquiry. Method: We conducted a focused review of the literature on masked-speech recognition for bilingual children and adults. First, we evaluated how studies published since 2002 described bilingual participants. Second, we reviewed the literature on native language masked-speech recognition. Third, we discussed theoretically motivated experimental work. Fourth, we outlined how recent research in bilingual speech recognition can be used to improve clinical practice. Results: Research conducted since 2002 commonly describes bilingual samples in terms of their language status, competency, and history. Bilingualism was not consistently associated with poor masked-speech recognition. For example, bilinguals who were exposed to English prior to age 7 years and who were dominant in English performed comparably to monolinguals for masked-sentence recognition tasks. To the best of our knowledge, there are no data to document the masked-speech recognition ability of these bilinguals in their other language compared to a second monolingual group, which is an important next step. Nonetheless, individual factors that commonly vary within bilingual populations were associated with masked-speech recognition and included language dominance, competency, and age of acquisition. We identified methodological issues in sampling strategies that could, in part, be responsible for inconsistent findings between studies. For instance, disparities in socioeconomic status (SES) between recruited bilingual and monolingual groups could cause confounding bias within the research design. Conclusions: Dimensions of the bilingual linguistic profile should be considered in clinical practice to inform counseling and (re)habilitation strategies since susceptibility to masking is elevated in at least one language for most bilinguals. Future research should continue to report language status, competency, and history but should also report language stability and demand for use data. In addition, potential confounds (e.g., SES, educational attainment) when making group comparisons between monolinguals and bilinguals must be considered.
The Children’s English/Spanish Speech Recognition Test (ChEgSS) is a computer-based tool for assessing closed-set word recognition in either speech-shaped noise or two-talker speech. Instructions and stimuli are recorded in both languages, and listeners respond by pointing to the picture depicting the word that they heard. Preliminary clinical feasibility and reliability data will be presented, along with age norms for children (4.1–17.0 yrs) who are either English monolinguals (n = 89) or Spanish/English bilinguals (n = 83). Results obtained with the two maskers will be evaluated with respect to age, language group, and receptive vocabulary. SRTs in English were higher in two-talker speech than speech-shaped noise and were 1.7dB lower for monolinguals than bilinguals for both maskers. SRTs were lower in English than Spanish for bilinguals in noise but not significantly different in speech. Consistent with prior research, SRTs in both languages improved with age; effects of age were more pronounced and prolonged in two-talker speech than in speech-shaped noise. The mean discrepancy between replicate estimates of SRT in English were 1.8 dB in noise and 3.1 in two-talker speech. Overall, these results suggest ChEgSS may be a valuable tool for clinical assessment of masked speech perception in children.
Purpose: Speech-language pathologists report barriers to conducting culturally appropriate bilingual language evaluations when there is a suspicion of language disorder. One barrier is that there may not be personnel available to directly assess language development in a language other than English. The purpose of this clinical focus article is to demonstrate the potential for speech-language pathologists to incorporate direct assessment data from a language they cannot speak fluently when there are barriers to a comprehensive bilingual evaluation. First, we review the clinical markers of bilingual language disorders. Second, we review the evidence from audiology that uses closed-set tasks to assess speech recognition in languages the clinician cannot speak fluently. Last, we explore potential methods for applying such practices in clinical language evaluations when there is a suspicion of language disorder. Conclusions: Closed-set tasks, such as receptive language tests, could be a promising way for speech-language pathologists to incorporate direct assessment data from a language they cannot fluently speak into bilingual language evaluations. Other structured tasks, such as sentence repetition tasks, may not yield valid language data without the clinician having adequate competency in the test language. This clinical focus article emphasizes the great need to diversify the profession of speech-language pathology to promote equity and access to clinical language evaluations and interventions for culturally and linguistically diverse children.
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