TY - JOUR
T1 - Language ability groups in bilingual children
T2 - A latent profile analysis
AU - Kapantzoglou, Maria
AU - Restrepo, Maria
AU - Gray, Shelley
AU - Thompson, Marilyn
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2015/10/1
Y1 - 2015/10/1
N2 - Purpose: Classifying children into two language ability groups, with and without language impairment, may underestimate the number of groups with distinct language ability patterns, or, alternatively, there may be only a single group characterized by a continuum of language performance. The purpose of the current study was to identify the number and characteristics of latent (unobservable) language ability groups in an unclassified sample of predominantly Spanish-speaking children. Method: An unclassified sample of 431 predominantly Spanish-speaking 5-to 7-year-olds learning English participated in the study. The groups were identified on thebasisof(a)languagesampleanalyses(semantic, grammatical, and sentence-length measures); (b) language processing tasks (phonological working memory and processing speed measures); and (c) nonverbal cognitive abilities assessed using a standardized measure. All tasks were administered in Spanish. Latent profile analysis was used to examine the number and nature of distinct language ability groups in the unclassified sample. Results: Results indicated that a three-group model best represented the data, characterized by low grammaticality in one group, low phonological working memory in another group, and average skills in a third group. Conclusion: Classifying children into two groups, those with and without language impairment, may lead to misidentification of language impairment.
AB - Purpose: Classifying children into two language ability groups, with and without language impairment, may underestimate the number of groups with distinct language ability patterns, or, alternatively, there may be only a single group characterized by a continuum of language performance. The purpose of the current study was to identify the number and characteristics of latent (unobservable) language ability groups in an unclassified sample of predominantly Spanish-speaking children. Method: An unclassified sample of 431 predominantly Spanish-speaking 5-to 7-year-olds learning English participated in the study. The groups were identified on thebasisof(a)languagesampleanalyses(semantic, grammatical, and sentence-length measures); (b) language processing tasks (phonological working memory and processing speed measures); and (c) nonverbal cognitive abilities assessed using a standardized measure. All tasks were administered in Spanish. Latent profile analysis was used to examine the number and nature of distinct language ability groups in the unclassified sample. Results: Results indicated that a three-group model best represented the data, characterized by low grammaticality in one group, low phonological working memory in another group, and average skills in a third group. Conclusion: Classifying children into two groups, those with and without language impairment, may lead to misidentification of language impairment.
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U2 - 10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-14-0290
DO - 10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-14-0290
M3 - Article
C2 - 26200211
AN - SCOPUS:84944537327
SN - 1092-4388
VL - 58
SP - 1549
EP - 1562
JO - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
JF - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
IS - 5
ER -