Assessment of Bilingual Children and English Language Learners

Children from minority-language backgrounds are disproportionately represented in Special Education and lack access to equitable services to support their needs. A significant contributor to the problem is that speech-language pathologists and teachers often have difficulties distinguishing between what are typical behaviors in second language learning and what are indicators of language disorders. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an assessment framework for differentiating between language differences and language disorders. This course will provide a framework for assessing bilingual children and children who are English language learners. This course will also provide case examples of assessments in the family setting and in the school setting. This course is second of three courses on bilingualism. In the next course, bilingualism in children with communication disabilities are discussed.