Spanish Language and Literacy Intervention for Bilingual Children at Risk for Developmental Language Disorder

Abstract

This pilot study evaluates the feasibility of an integrated intervention titled Language and Literacy Together developed to target semantic and narrative skills in bilingual children at risk for developmental language disorder (DLD). Thirteen first-grade bilingual children who scored in the risk range for DLD on the Bilingual English Spanish Oral Screener received intervention. Children completed pretest and posttest evaluations of semantics and narrative comprehension and production in Spanish and English. Intervention participants demonstrated significant gains in both semantics and narrative skills, in both the language of the intervention (Spanish) and in English. The largest gains were observed for Spanish narrative comprehension and English narrative production. The Spanish Language and Literacy Together intervention appears a feasible approach for improving bilingual children's semantic skills and supporting generalization to narrative comprehension and production skills, which underpin literacy. Gains in both languages suggest evidence of cross-language transfer.