English BESA Morphosyntax Performance Among Spanish–English Bilinguals Who Use African American English

Abstract

Purpose This study examined the use of African American English (AAE) among a group of young Latinx bilingual children and the accuracy of the English Morphosyntax subtest of the Bilingual English–Spanish Assessment (BESA) in classifying these children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Children ( N = 81) between the ages of 4;0 and 7;1 (years;months) completed a narrative task and the BESA Morphosyntax subtest. We identified DLD based on four reference measures. We compared specific dialectal features used by children with DLD and their typically developing peers. We also conducted an overall analysis of the BESA subtest and subsequent item-level analyses to determine if particular items were more likely to contribute to the correct classification of the participants. Results Children with DLD used three AAE forms in their narrative samples (subject–verb agreement, zero copula/auxiliary, or zero past tense) more frequently than their typically developing peers. Area-under-the-curve estimates for the cloze, sentence repetition, and composite scores of the BESA indicated that the assessment identified children with DLD in the sample with good sensitivity. Item analysis indicated that the majority of items (84%) significantly differentiated typically developing children and children with DLD. Conclusions The BESA English Morphosyntax subtest appears to be a valid tool for the identification of DLD in children exposed to AAE and Spanish. We provide practical implications and suggestions for future research addressing the identification of DLD among children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Speech-Language Pathologists and Culturally Competent Intervention

“…This is an increasingly important concept as the population of culturally diverse individuals continuously increases. While culturally responsive assessment practices are steadily being adapted (e.g., Gatlin-Nash et al, 2021; Moland & Oetting, 2021), there is a lack of research demonstrating how SLPs are choosing therapy materials to target intervention goals with CLD individuals. To develop culturally responsive materials, SLPs must engage in many thoughtful activities, such as paying attention to the races of the people in the picture, paying attention to pronoun use, and making sure multiple identities of differing cultural backgrounds are represented.…”