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Children from language minority homes reach school age with variable dual language skills. Cluster analysis identified four bilingual profiles among 126 U.S.-born, 5-year-old Spanish-English bilinguals. The profiles differed on two dimensions: language balance and total language knowledge. Balance varied primarily as a function of indicators of the relative quantity and the quality of their language exposure (amount of home exposure and maternal education in each language). Total language knowledge varied primarily as a function of indicators of children's language learning ability (phonological memory and nonverbal intelligence). English dominance was more prevalent than balanced bilingualism; there was no Spanish dominant profile, despite average Spanish dominance in home language use. There was no evidence of a tradeoff between English and Spanish skills.

Background: Despite the ability of cochlear implants (CIs) to provide children with access to speech, there is considerable variability in spoken language outcomes. Research aimed at identifying factors influencing speech production accuracy is needed. Aims: To characterize the consonant production accuracy of children with cochlear implants (CWCI) and an age‐matched group of children with typical hearing (CWTH) and to explore several factors that potentially affect the ability of both groups to accurately produce consonants. Methods & Procedures: We administered the Bankson‐Bernthal Test of Phonology (BBTOP) to a group of 25 CWCI (mean age = 4;9, SD = 1;6, range = 3;2–8;5) implanted prior to 30 months of age with a mean duration of implant usage of 3;6 and an age‐matched group of 25 CWTH (mean age = 5;0, SD = 1;6, range = 3;1–8;6). The recorded results were transcribed, and the accuracy of the target consonants was determined. Expressive vocabulary size estimates were obtained from a language sample using the number of different words (NDW). A parent questionnaire provided information about maternal education, duration of CIs experience and other demographic characteristics of each child. Outcomes & Results: The CWCI group demonstrated some similarities to, and some differences from, their hearing peers. The CWCI demonstrated poorer consonant production accuracy overall and in various phonetic categories and word positions. However, both groups produced initial consonants more accurately than final consonants. Whilst CWCI had poorer production accuracy than CWTH for all phonetic categories (stops, nasals, fricatives, affricates, liquids and glides and consonant clusters), both groups exhibited similar error patterns across categories. For CWCI, the factors most related to consonant production accuracy when considered individually were expressive vocabulary size, followed by duration of CI experience, chronological age, maternal education and gender. The combination of maternal education and vocabulary size resulted in the best model of consonant production accuracy for this group. For the CWTH, chronological age followed by vocabulary size were most related to consonant production accuracy. No combination of factors yielded an improved model for the CWTH. Conclusions & Implications: Whilst group differences in production accuracy between the CWCI and CWTH were found, the pattern of errors was similar for the two groups of children, suggesting that the children are at earlier stages of overall consonant production development. Although duration of CI experience was a significant covariate in a single‐variable model of consonant production accuracy for CWCI, the best multivariate model of consonant production accuracy for these children was based on the combination of expressive vocabulary size and maternal education. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject: Research has shown that a range of factors is associated with consonant production accuracy by CWCIs, including factors such as the age at implant, duration of implant use, gender, other language skills and maternal education. Despite numerous studies that have examined speech sound production in these children, most have explored a limited number of factors that might explain the variability in scores obtained. Research that examines the potential role of a range of child‐related and environmental factors in the same children is needed to determine the predictive role of these factors in speech production outcomes. What this paper adds to the existing knowledge: Whilst the consonant production accuracy was lower for the CWCIs than for their typically hearing peers, there were some similarities suggesting that these children are experiencing similar, but delayed, acquisition of consonant production skills to that of their hearing peers. Whilst several factors are predictive of consonant production accuracy in children with implants, vocabulary diversity and maternal education, an indirect measure of socio‐economic status, were the best combined predictors of consonant production accuracy. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: Understanding the factors that shape individual differences in CWCI speech production is important for effective clinical decision‐making and intervention planning. The present findings point to two potentially important factors related to speech sound production beyond the duration of robust hearing in CWCI, namely, a lexical diversity and maternal education. This suggests that intervention is likely most efficient that addresses both vocabulary development and speech sound development together. The current findings further suggest the importance of parental involvement and commitment to spoken language development and the importance of receiving early and consistent intervention aimed both at skill development and parental efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many children learn language, in part, from the speech of non-native speakers who vary in their language proficiency. To investigate the influence of speaker proficiency on the quality of child-directed speech, 29 mothers who were native English speakers and 31 mothers who were native speakers of Spanish and who reported speaking English to their children on a regular basis were recorded interacting with their two-year-old children in English. Of the non-native speakers, 21 described their English proficiency as 'good', and eight described their English proficiency as 'limited'. ANCOVAs, controlling for differences in maternal education and child language level, revealed significant effects of group on lexical and grammatical properties of child-directed speech that the literature has identified as positive predictors of child language development. These results suggest that the child-directed speech of native speakers and non-native speakers with good proficiency provide a richer database for language acquisition than the child-directed speech of speakers with limited proficiency.

Effects of child and environmental factors in moderating the course of bilingual development were investigated using longitudinal data, from age 2.5 to 5 years, on 126 U.S.-born children with early exposure to Spanish and English. Multilevel models of Spanish and English expressive vocabulary identified children's phonological memory ability as a significant predictor of both outcomes, while also replicating the effect of the relative amount of language exposure. In addition, nonverbal IQ was a significant predictor of English vocabulary; birth order and maternal education in Spanish were significant predictors of Spanish vocabulary. These findings expand our understanding of the sources of the wide heterogeneity in bilingual development and of the requirements that language acquisition makes of learners and their environments.

Purpose: Vocabulary assessment holds promise as a way to identify young bilingual children at risk for language delay. This study compares 2 measures of vocabulary in a group of young Spanish-English bilingual children to a single-language measure used with monolingual children. Method: Total vocabulary and conceptual vocabulary were used to measure mean vocabulary size and growth in 47 Spanish-English bilingually developing children from 22 to 30 months of age based on results from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI; Fenson et al., 1993) and the Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas (Jackson-Maldonado et al., 2003). Bilingual children's scores of total vocabulary and conceptual vocabulary were compared with CDI scores for a control group of 56 monolingual children. Results: The total vocabulary measure resulted in mean vocabulary scores and average rate of growth similar to monolingual growth, whereas conceptual vocabulary scores were significantly smaller and grew at a slower rate than total vocabulary scores. Total vocabulary identified the same proportion of bilingual children below the 25th percentile on monolingual norms as the CDI did for monolingual children. Conclusion: These results support the use of total vocabulary as a means of assessing early language development in young bilingual Spanish--English speaking children.

The extant literature includes conflicting assertions regarding the influence of bilingualism on the rate of language development. The present study compared the language development of equivalently high-SES samples of bilingually and monolingually developing children from 1 ; 10 to 2 ; 6. The monolingually developing children were significantly more advanced than the bilingually developing children on measures of both vocabulary and grammar in single language comparisons, but they were comparable on a measure of total vocabulary. Within the bilingually developing sample, all measures of vocabulary and grammar were related to the relative amount of input in that language. Implications for theories of language acquisition and for understanding bilingual development are discussed. (Contains 1 footnote.)

The relation of phonological memory to language experience and development was investigated in 41 Spanish-English bilingual first language learners. The children's relative exposure to English and Spanish and their phonological memory for English- and Spanish-like nonwords were assessed at 22 months of age, and their productive vocabulary and grammar in both languages were assessed at 25 months of age. Phonological memory for English-like nonwords was highly correlated with that for Spanish-like nonwords, and each was related to vocabulary and grammar in both languages, suggesting a language-general component to phonological memory skill. In addition, there was evidence of language-specific benefits of language exposure to phonological memory skill and of language-specific benefits of phonological memory skill to language development. (Contains 5 tables.)

Two studies test the hypotheses that individual differences in phonological memory among children younger than two years can be assessed using a non-word repetition task (NWR) and that these differences are related to the children's rates of vocabulary development. NWR accuracy, real word repetition accuracy and productive vocabulary were assessed in 15 children between 1 ; 9 and 2 ; 0 in Study 1 and in 21 children between 1 ; 8 and 2 ; 0 in Study 2. In both studies, NWR accuracy was significantly related to vocabulary percentile and, furthermore, uniquely accounted for a substantial portion of the variance in vocabulary when real word repetition accuracy was held constant. The findings establish NWR as a valid measure of phonological memory in very young children, and they open the door for further studies of the role of phonological memory in early word learning.

We investigated the role of bilingual parents’ language proficiency in their reports of their children’s vocabulary size. Sixty-four Spanish-English bilingual mothers whose L1 was Spanish reported their bilingual children’s English and Spanish vocabularies and 37 monolingual L1 English-speaking mothers reported their monolingual children’s English vocabularies—both using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development inventories. Expressive vocabularies were also assessed with a standardized, examiner-administered test. Spanish L1 mothers with limited English proficiency provided lower estimates of their children’s English vocabulary than those with higher English proficiency—relative to the examiner-administered test score. Despite this effect of language proficiency on parent reports, the size of the observed difference in English vocabulary between monolingual children and bilingual children was not significantly different when estimated with a parent-report instrument than when estimated with an examiner-administered test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]