Contextual influences on sentence repetition as a tool for the identification of language impairment in Grade 3 Sepedi-English bilinguals: A case against bilingual norms.
Heila Jordaan, Monene H Ngwanduli
PMID 32896134WHAT IT FOUND
Sentence repetition scores varied widely by school language policy, not just by impairment.
Bilingual norms are unworkable; clinicians must compare children to peers in their specific educational context and assess both languages to avoid misidentifying those still acquiring English.
Key findings
01Children's sentence repetition accuracy depended heavily on their educational context, with scores significantly higher in the language of learning and teaching.
02Assessing only English would have over-identified two children as language impaired because their home language skills were intact.
03Sentence repetition can serve as a screening tool if compared to a peer group in the same educational setting rather than against broad bilingual norms.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot track whether identified children actually have developmental language disorder or were just slow to acquire the additional language. Sample sizes for each context were small (31-36 children), which limits the precision of the peer group means used for comparison. The 'possible SLI' identification relied on a 1-2 SD cutoff against a peer group that included the children being tested, which may underestimate impairment if the group itself has low language skills. No gold-standard diagnostic assessment was used to confirm the language status of the children flagged or excluded.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume a low sentence repetition score in the additional language indicates impairment. In this study, two children flagged for impairment in English had normal scores in their home language Sepedi and were simply still acquiring English. Always check the home language score before referring.