WPPSI‐IV and NEPSY‐II performance in mono‐ and bilingual 5–6‐year‐old children: Findings from The FinSwed Study

Abstract

Children's language background relates to their neurocognitive development. Knowledge of this relationship is important as bilingualism is common. However, research regarding language background in relation to performance on cognitive tests such as the WPPSI‐IV and NEPSY‐II is scarce. The present study compared WPPSI‐IV and NEPSY‐II performances between 5‐ and 6‐year‐old Swedish‐speaking monolingual (n = 45) and Swedish‐Finnish‐speaking simultaneous bilingual (n = 34) children in Finland. The participants were gathered by stratified sampling and were assessed with the Swedish versions of the tests. In profile analyses, a significant monolingual advantage was found in some WPPSI‐IV subtests and indexes requiring expressive vocabulary (Vocabulary, Similarities, Picture Naming, and Vocabulary Acquisition Index) and visuospatial skills (Object Assembly and Visual Spatial Index). No group differences were found between mono‐ and bilingual children in receptive language, visual memory, or fluid intelligence. Additionally, no differences were found on the Full Scale IQ. The performance on the WPPSI‐IV Similarities subtest improved in a subgroup of bilinguals when answers in both Swedish and Finnish were accounted for, instead of accepting only answers in Swedish. No significant differences were found between mono‐ and bilinguals on the language and memory tasks of NEPSY‐II. These findings highlight the importance of considering the child's language background when assessing expressive language in young children, as well as the benefits of assessing bilinguals in both of their languages.

A comparison of WPPSI-IV performance between Finland-Swedish minority children and the Scandinavian test norms: Findings from The FinSwed Study

“…This is quite surprising since there were no differences between mono- and bilingual Finland-Swedish children in nonverbal subtests of the WPPSI-R (Korkman et al, 2012). Korpinen et al (2023, based on the same data as the present study) have further discussed this result and the possibility of it being a chance finding. There was also a significant relationship between sex and the PSI, with girls scoring significantly higher.…”

“…A similar trend was also found for the VCI, which measures verbal reasoning, verbal concept formulation, and acquired knowledge (Wechsler, 2012). Previously, the bilinguals in this study have been shown to perform significantly lower on Similarities, Vocabulary, and Picture Naming than monolinguals (Korpinen et al, 2023). Similar bilingual disadvantages in expressive vocabulary tasks have also been found previously in young Finland-Swedish children (Korkman et al, 2012;Westman et al, 2008) and internationally (e.g., Thordardottir, 2011).…”

“…The number of bilinguals in a population is also one factor that can relate to test performance between cultures (e.g., Garratt & Kelly, 2007;Lauchlan et al, 2012;Rosselli et al, 2010). For instance, there seems to be a monolingual advantage in vocabulary (Bialystok et al, 2010), for young children especially in expressive vocabulary (Korkman et al, 2012;Korpinen et al, 2023;Thordardottir, 2011).…”

“…The number of bilinguals in a population is also one factor that can relate to test performance between cultures (e.g., Garratt & Kelly, 2007; Lauchlan et al, 2012; Rosselli et al, 2010). For instance, there seems to be a monolingual advantage in vocabulary (Bialystok et al, 2010), for young children especially in expressive vocabulary (Korkman et al, 2012; Korpinen et al, 2023; Thordardottir, 2011). However, linguistic reasons cannot be the only explanation for cross-cultural differences, since differences have been found also on nonverbal tests (Roivainen, 2019; Rosselli & Ardila, 2003) as well as between people from different countries who speak the same language (Babcock et al, 2018; Duggan et al, 2019; Miller et al, 2015).…”

Clinical impact and in vitro characterization of ADNP variants in pediatric patients

“…Photographs of the facial features of 13 children were also collected as part of the study. To assess the children's developmental progress and cognitive abilities, two specific tools were used: Griffiths Development Scales-Chinese (GDS-C) [ 30 ] and Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence–Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV) [ 31 ]. GDS-C is a comprehensive tool for assessing the developmental progress of children from birth to 8 years across various areas, including gross and fine motor skills, personal/social abilities, language, and performance.…”