Margarita Kaushanskaya - US grants

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nearly 47 million individuals speak languages other than English in the United States. However, patterns of typical and atypical language development in bilingual children remain unclear, and the ability to construct valid and reliable bilingual assessment tools is therefore limited. Since early diagnosis of a speech-language impairment is instrumental to successful intervention, and ultimately, to the child's quality of life, the lack of assessment tools appropriate for use with bilingual children constitutes a significant health risk. The long-term goal of this research is to develop theoretically-grounded assessment methods appropriate for use with bilingual children along a wide range of proficiency levels. The goal of the present work is to use the theoretical framework of working memory to examine whether and how word-learning tasks index vocabulary knowledge in sequential bilingual children. Experiment 1 will compare Spanish-English sequential-bilingual and monolingual children ages 5-6 on their ability to learn phonologically-familiar novel words that follow the English phonological structure. It is hypothesized that knowledge of English vocabulary will influence children's performance on the phonologically-familiar word-learning task. Because sequential bilinguals have weaker vocabulary in English (their second language) compared to native speakers of English, it is predicted that monolingual children will outperform sequential-bilingual children on the phonologically-familiar task. Experiment 2 will compare Spanish-English sequential-bilingual and monolingual children on their ability to learn phonologically-unfamiliar novel words that do not follow either the English or the Spanish phonological structure. Knowledge of English vocabulary is hypothesized to have limited effect on encoding of phonologically-unfamiliar novel words. Therefore, it is predicted that sequential bilinguals and monolinguals will demonstrate comparable performance levels on the phonologically-unfamiliar task. The relationship between vocabulary skills and word-learning performance in bilingual vs. monolingual children will also be examined. If word-learning tasks are found to index bilingual children's conceptual rather than English-specific vocabulary knowledge, diagnostic use of word-learning tasks with bilingual children can be supported. If the phonologically-unfamiliar task yields comparable performance levels in bilingual and monolingual children, its use can be generalized to other bilingual children with different language-learning histories and proficiency profiles. Theoretically, the experiments will test the ability of the working memory model to accommodate and predict the association between vocabulary knowledge and phonological memory capacity in monolingual compared to bilingual children. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The current project aims to improve diagnostic practices with children who speak English as a second language, and who therefore cannot be tested using tools developed for monolingual English-speaking children. In the proposed work, we test whether word-learning tasks can serve as markers of typical vocabulary development in Spanish-speaking bilingual children who are acquiring English as a second language. Because early diagnosis of a language difficulty is key to successful intervention and to the child's ultimate quality of life, identification of tasks that can accurately index bilingual children's typical vs. atypical development can make significant contribution to public health.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The importance of executive function (EF) in social, emotional, academic and career domains is well established. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate the association between language and EF abilities in school-age children with typical and atypical development. There are two separate lines of research that provide empirical support for the existence of a relationship between language and EF. First, research on bilingualism suggests that experience with two languages facilitates EF skills. Second, the disabilities literature has focused on whether dysfunction in executive control may be one of the factors underlying deficits associated with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). In both accounts, there is some conflicting evidence and both approaches are underspecified in terms of the particular components of EF and specific language functions that may be linked. The proposed project will bridge the bilingualism and the disorders literatures by examining the relationship between language and executive function in typically-developing bilingual and monolingual children, children with SLI, and children with ASD. The theoretical motivation for exploring the relationship between language and EF stems from a leading developmental theory of executive control proposed by Zelazo and colleagues. By investigating EF performance across groups with varying language abilities we aim to test a critical assumption of this model related to the use of language to manage executive control. A total of 160 children (40 per group) will participate in four studies designed to address the following three specific aims: 1) Compare the performance of bilingual, monolingual, SLI, and ASD groups matched on age and nonverbal cognition on a range of EF measures; 2) Examine the concurrent and longitudinal relationship between specific components of EF and language knowledge, processing, and learning across the groups; and 3) Directly assess the role of verbal mediation in EF across these groups with typical and atypical language abilities. The proposed project represents an innovative approach to establishing a comprehensive conceptual framework that spans the extent of individual variation from enhanced abilities in language/EF to impairments in language/EF. Findings from this project also have potential implications for targeted interventions for children with language disorders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The goal of the proposed project is to examine the association between language and executive function - defined as the cognitive processes that underlie goal-directed behavior - in school-age children with typical and atypical development. Executive function is critical for learning and academic achievement, self- regulation, and social competence. This research will provide insights into how children's linguistic skills relate to ther executive function abilities by examining a wide range of individual variation in language ability, including bilingual and monolingual children with typical development, children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI), and children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Results from this project will further our understanding of the nature of SLI and ASD and could have implications for targeted interventions with these populations.

Project Summary/Abstract Bilingualism is the norm for much of the world, and even in the United States, where monolingualism is common, at least 22% of individuals over age 5 speak a language other than English at home. However, we still do not know how to best structure the language environment to yield optimal language outcomes in bilingual children. In the current proposal, we aim to answer this fundamental question by examining the effect of dual language input on word learning in Spanish-English bilingual children with fluctuating levels of language ability. Specific Aim 1 is to examine the effect of dual language input on novel word learning. In these experiments we will contrast learning from single-language (English only) vs. dual language exposure (Spanish and English) across different types of dual-language input and for different word types. Specific Aim 2 is to examine the effect of dual language input on novel word consolidation. In these experiments, we will use eye-tracking to test whether newly-learned novel words enter into interactive dynamics with known words within and across languages. Specific Aim 3 is to examine the relationship between language ability and novel word learning under dual- language conditions. We will do so by recruiting bilingual children who occupy the full range of language abilities - from typical skills in both English and Spanish to weak skills in both languages (i.e., language impairment). This strategy will enable us to treat language ability as a continuum and to examine how it predicts novel word learning and consolidation across all experiments proposed under Aims 1 and 2. We hypothesize that dual-language input may be particularly challenging for children with weak language skills, and expect that the relationship between language ability and word-learning outcomes will vary across different types of dual-language input and different word types. Ultimately, we will be able to state whether children with weak language skills struggle more with learning from dual-language input than children with strong language skills, yielding practical recommendations for parents, clinicians, and educators. Together, our findings will have clear-cut practical consequences and far-reaching theoretical ramifications. Currently, advice to parents raising bilingual children with language impairment regarding the optimal language exposure is based on intuition rather than on solid empirical evidence. The current proposal represents the first step towards establishing empirically-grounded guidelines regarding optimal language input for bilingual children with and without language impairment. At the theoretical level, the study of code-switching has been central to the field of bilingualism, and we know a great deal about the process by which bilinguals switch languages. However, we know very little about how the different ways of switching languages influence children?s ability to learn. By focusing on the learning process itself, the proposed project can contribute vital information to the code-switching literature, while at the same time shedding light on how dual language input may shape lexical learning.