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Code-switching occurs regularly in the input to bilingual children. Yet, the effect of code-switched input on language development is unclear. To test whether word learning would be affected by code-switching, Spanish-English bilingual children (N = 45, 19 boys, Mean[subscript Age] = 5.05 years; ethnicity: 37 Hispanic/Latino, six Non-Hispanic/Latino, two unreported) were taught English-like novel words in two conditions. In the English-only condition, definitions for novel words were provided entirely in English. In the code-switch condition, definitions for novel words were provided in English and Spanish, incorporating code-switches. Children required fewer exposures to retain novel words in the code-switch than the English-only condition and this effect was not moderated by children's language ability or exposure to code-switching, suggesting that code-switched input does not pose word-learning risks to bilingual children, including children with lower levels of language ability.

Purpose: There is conflicting evidence regarding effects of bilingualism on inhibition, and the mechanisms that might underlie the effects remain unclear. A prominent account views additional demands on structural language use in bilinguals as being at the root of bilingual effects on inhibition. In this study, we tested the novel hypothesis that social-pragmatic skills (alone or together with structural language skills) are associated with inhibition in bilingual children. Method: Parents of 114 typically developing 8- to 11-year-old Spanish--English bilingual children completed the Children's Communication Checklist--Second Edition to index social pragmatics and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function to index executive functioning skills. The Inhibit clinical scale score reflected children's inhibition. Children's language ability was indexed by the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals--Fourth Edition in English and Spanish. Length of bilingualism was operationalized continuously as the length of time children had been exposed to both languages in their lifetime. Moderation analyses tested the effects of structural language, social-pragmatic skills, and length of bilingual experience, and their interactions on inhibition. Results: While structural language skills were not associated with inhibition, they moderated the relation between social-pragmatic skills and inhibition, such that children with better social-pragmatic skills demonstrated better inhibition, and this effect was stronger for children with better structural language skills. Furthermore, longer length of bilingual experience was associated with better inhibition, and this effect was not moderated by any other predictor. Conclusion: These results confirm a graded relationship between bilingualism and inhibition, and indicate that this association is not qualified by structural language or social-pragmatic skills.

Purpose: The current study examined the role of attention and language ability in nonverbal rule induction performance in a demographically diverse sample of school-age children. Method: The participants included 43 English-speaking monolingual and 65 Spanish-English bilingual children between the ages of 5 and 9 years. Core Language Index standard scores from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals--Fourth Edition indexed children's language skills. Rule induction was measured via a visual artificial grammar learning task. Two equally complex finite-state artificial grammars were used. Children learned one grammar in a low attention condition (where children were exposed to symbol sequences with no distractors) and another grammar in a high attention condition (where distractor symbols were presented around the perimeter of the target symbol sequences). Results: Overall, performance in the high attention condition was significantly worse than performance in the low attention condition. Children with robust language skills performed significantly better in the high attention condition than children with weaker language skills. Despite group differences in socioeconomic status, English language skills, and nonverbal intelligence, monolingual and bilingual children performed similarly to each other in both conditions. Conclusion: The results suggest that the ability to extract rules from visual input is attenuated by the presence of competing visual information and that language ability, but not bilingualism, may influence rule induction.

Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have deficits in verbal and nonverbal processing relative to typically developing (TD) peers. We examined working memory in DLD relative to age-matched TD peers (9-13 years) under the serial-order-in-a-box – complex span model. This model posits a time-based mechanism, Free Time, that governs how interference affects processing performance. Results showed that Free Time was positively associated with accuracy when recall and interference stimuli had verbal features (b = 0.00; stat = 3.11; p < .01), and combined verbal and nonverbal features (b = 0.00; stat = 3.05; p < .01). Group differences in this relationship were evident when recall stimuli had verbal features regardless of interference stimuli features (b = -0.00; stat = -3.66; p < .001; b = 0.00; stat = 2.97; p < .01). Findings suggest a greater role of Free Time for verbal than nonverbal content, which varies depending on participant characteristics.

Background: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have deficits in verbal and non-verbal processing relative to typically developing (TD) peers, potentially reflecting difficulties in working memory, processing speed and inhibition of interference. We examined working memory in children with DLD using the serial-order-in-a-box--complex span (SOB-CS) interference-based model, which posits a time-based mechanism, "free time," that governs how interference affects processing performance. Aims: (1) To determine the degree to which children with DLD and TD children differ in the amount of "free time" available during working memory tasks, and whether potential group differences in "free time" differ depending on the domain of task demands? (2) To determine the relationship between free time and interference effects on working memory accuracy in children with DLD relative to TD peers. Methods & Procedures: We examined the relationship between free time and working memory in children aged 9-13 years with DLD relative to age-matched TD peers. Working memory tasks involved five conditions that varied verbal versus non-verbal task demands in an interference processing phase relative to a recall test phase. "Free time" was the time between response on the interference processing task and onset of the recall test phase. Outcomes & Results: DLD and TD groups did not differ in total "free time" in any condition. Results indicated group differences in the relationship between "free time" and accuracy in the conditions involving verbal recall, but not non-verbal recall. In the verbal-only condition, relatively more free time was associated with worse accuracy for the DLD group, but with better accuracy for the TD group. In the condition with verbal recall paired with non-verbal interference processing, relatively more "free time" was associated with better accuracy for the DLD group, but not for the TD group. Conclusions & Implication: The overall findings suggest that "free time" between cognitive operations is positively associated with working memory for both verbal and non-verbal recall, except in the presence of high verbal interference for the DLD group (i.e., verbal interference paired with verbal recall). This finding may reflect poor encoding and attention under particularly challenging verbal processing demands for the DLD group. This study also demonstrates the importance of considering the interrelationships between processing speed and interference in working memory performance.

Purpose: There is conflicting evidence regarding effects of bilingualism on inhibition, and the mechanisms that might underlie the effects remain unclear. A prominent account views additional demands on structural language use in bilinguals as being at the root of bilingual effects on inhibition. In this study, we tested the novel hypothesis that social-pragmatic skills (alone or together with structural language skills) are associated with inhibition in bilingual children. Method: Parents of 114 typically developing 8- to 11-year-old Spanish-English bilingual children completed the Children's Communication Checklist-Second Edition to index social pragmatics and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function to index executive functioning skills. The Inhibit clinical scale score reflected children's inhibition. Children's language ability was indexed by the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition in English and Spanish. Length of bilingualism was operationalized continuously as the length of time children had been exposed to both languages in their lifetime. Moderation analyses tested the effects of structural language, social-pragmatic skills, and length of bilingual experience, and their interactions on inhibition. Results: While structural language skills were not associated with inhibition, they moderated the relation between social-pragmatic skills and inhibition, such that children with better social-pragmatic skills demonstrated better inhibition, and this effect was stronger for children with better structural language skills. Furthermore, longer length of bilingual experience was associated with better inhibition, and this effect was not moderated by any other predictor. Conclusion: These results confirm a graded relationship between bilingualism and inhibition, and indicate that this association is not qualified by structural language or social-pragmatic skills. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21183916, Executive functioning skills (EFs) are the complex cognitive processes that include inhibition, working memory, and shifting (Diamond, 2013). EFs are highly important in development, predicting academic outcomes, and overall educational [...]

Purpose: The current study examined the role of attention and language ability in nonverbal rule induction performance in a demographically diverse sample of school-age children. Method: The participants included 43 English-speaking monolingual and 65 Spanish-English bilingual children between the ages of 5 and 9 years. Core Language Index standard scores from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition indexed children's language skills. Rule induction was measured via a visual artificial grammar learning task. Two equally complex finite-state artificial grammars were used. Children learned one grammar in a low attention condition (where children were exposed to symbol sequences with no distractors) and another grammar in a high attention condition (where distractor symbols were presented around the perimeter of the target symbol sequences). Results: Overall, performance in the high attention condition was significantly worse than performance in the low attention condition. Children with robust language skills performed significantly better in the high attention condition than children with weaker language skills. Despite group differences in socioeconomic status, English language skills, and nonverbal intelligence, monolingual and bilingual children performed similarly to each other in both conditions. Conclusion: The results suggest that the ability to extract rules from visual input is attenuated by the presence of competing visual information and that language ability, but not bilingualism, may influence rule induction., While most children effortlessly master developmentally appropriate language skills, some children experience protracted or atypical developmental trajectories. Research into individual differences in language ability has yielded several candidate mechanisms underlying [...]

The current study examined the effect of speaker variability on children's cross-situational word learning (XSWL). The study also examined the role of bilingual experience and sustained attention. Forty English monolingual children and 40 Spanish-English bilingual children ages 4-7 completed a XSWL task in a Single Speaker Condition and a Multiple Speaker Condition. Results indicated that speaker variability neither facilitated nor hindered XSWL. While monolingual children outperformed bilingual children, speaker-variability effects did not fluctuate across the two language groups. Notably, exposure to multiple speakers facilitated XSWL in children with poorer sustained attention skills, suggesting that variability in the input may be especially useful to children with poorer cognitive processing abilities.

This study investigated whether the effect of exposure to code-switching on bilingual children's language performance varied depending on verbal working memory (WM). A large sample of school-aged Spanish-English bilingual children (N = 174, Mage = 7.78) was recruited, and children were administered language measures in English and Spanish. The frequency with which the children were exposed to code-switching was gathered through parent report. For children with high verbal WM, greater exposure to code-switching was associated with higher levels of language ability. In contrast, for children with lower verbal WM, greater exposure to code-switching was associated with lower levels of language ability. These findings indicate that children's cognitive processing capacity dictates whether exposure to code-switching facilitates or hinders language skills.

Code‐switching occurs regularly in the input to bilingual children. Yet, the effect of code‐switched input on language development is unclear. To test whether word learning would be affected by code‐switching, Spanish–English bilingual children (N = 45, 19 boys, MeanAge = 5.05 years; ethnicity: 37 Hispanic/Latino, six Non‐Hispanic/Latino, two unreported) were taught English‐like novel words in two conditions. In the English‐only condition, definitions for novel words were provided entirely in English. In the code‐switch condition, definitions for novel words were provided in English and Spanish, incorporating code‐switches. Children required fewer exposures to retain novel words in the code‐switch than the English‐only condition and this effect was not moderated by children's language ability or exposure to code‐switching, suggesting that code‐switched input does not pose word‐learning risks to bilingual children, including children with lower levels of language ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When learning new words, listeners must contend with multiple sources of ambiguity and variability. Research has revealed that learners can resolve referential ambiguity by tracking co-occurrence statistics between words and their referents across multiple exposures over time-a process termed cross-situational word learning (XSWL). However, the degree to which variability in the input, such as input from multiple speakers, and variability in learner experience, such as bilingual language experience, modulate XSWL remains unclear. In this study, we examined the effects of speaker variability in XSWL performance in monolingual adults and bilingual adults with a range of second language backgrounds and language acquisition histories. Results revealed above-chance word learning in both the single and the multiple-speaker conditions across language groups. An advantage for word learning was observed in the single-speaker condition, but the effects of bilingual language experience were null. This research adds to the limited body of work dedicated to extending theories of statistical learning to account for variations in both input and learner characteristics as well as their interactions., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.