Model Eval- Spanish.English.10-0.pdf
IN is a sequential Spanish/English bilingual 10-year old girl demonstrating typically developing language skills. She attends a prestiguous public school with a heavy hispanic population and is currently in a general education classes receiving no related services or extra supports. Ines is demonstrating language loss in Spanish, however this is expected given her current linguistic environment.
Background information:
IN is a 10-year-old bilingual (English/Spanish) female who attends 5th grade in NJ. The population of her school is 60% Hispanic and 20% African American. IN was born in Elizabeth and currently lives in an apartment there with her parents. Both parents emigrated from Puebla, Mexico and neither of them graduated high school. IN’s mother, age 26, is both a cook at a restaurant and provides babysitting services to neighbors in the area. She does not speak English, however she has fairly good comprehension of English. IN’s father, age 30, works in the deli section of a supermarket. He does not speak or understand English and is illiterate in both Spanish and English. No history of speech, language, or academic disabilities was reported. However, formal evaluations of speech, language, or academic skills were never performed for IN’s parents or older family members. Therefore, full developmental history for IN’s parents was unavailable.
IN plans to attend her current school until graduation after her 8th grade year. IN’s favorite subject is math. She expressed a dislike for reading, however stated that she does have a favorite book, Green Eggs and Ham. According to parent report, IN’s academic skills are commensurate with those of her cousins of a similar age. Developmental milestones for speech and language were reported to be within normal limits and similar to those of her cousins. According to her mother, IN said her first word at 11 months and started putting two or more words together around 2 years. IN is currently an only child. Her mother is pregnant with her second child, a girl, and IN expressed excitement in anticipation of becoming an older sister. IN’s mother reported that she is pleased with her daughter’s academic progress and has no concerns regarding her receptive or expressive language skills. IN is in a regular education classroom setting and has not received prior speech or language intervention.
Language Background and Use
IN is a sequential bilingual speaker of Spanish and English, as she received exposure to only Spanish until the age of 4 years, when she began attending a monolingual English preschool. Currently, IN is exposed to English in school. She receives exposure to Spanish in the home, where her family members speak a Mexican dialect, and in her community. IN’s hometown of Elizabeth, NJ, has a large Hispanic population of primarily Colombian descent. It is also 20% African-American. IN has received exposure to both Mexican and Colombian dialects of Spanish. She has also received significant exposure to African American Vernacular English.
IN speaks only Spanish in the home. She speaks mostly Spanish with her uncles and cousins who live nearby and whom she sees often. She currently attends New Jersey Academy, a public school in which the students need to be admitted via lottery. Most students in the school speak Spanish, as do the teachers, however classes are taught in English. IN reported that of her close friends, one speaks Spanish. However, they typically speak English when they are together at school.
Evaluation
Behavioral Observations
IN presented as a quiet but friendly child who transitioned well to the informal evaluation setting. She appeared comfortable with all clinicians, as demonstrated by her initiating conversation with both familiar and unfamiliar partners. Turn-taking skills were judged to be good. IN established and maintained good eye contact with all clinicians throughout the evaluation. Attention to task and speaker were good throughout. IN was compliant with all instructions and did not require redirection to task. She was motivated and enthusiastic throughout all evaluation procedures.
Articulation/Phonology
Articulation and phonology were assessed via clinical observation during conversation. IN presented with intelligible speech and age-appropriate phonological skills. No phonological processes or articulation errors were observed in either language.
Voice, Fluency, & Resonance
Vocal quality and pitch appeared to be within normal limits for a child IN’s age, gender, and stature. No disfluencies were observed in IN’s speech. Resonance was observed to be within normal limits
Hearing
Based upon a recent full audiological evaluation, IN has normal hearing bilaterally. Her mother reported no history of middle ear infection.
Oral Peripheral Mechanism
Structure: Observation of the oral cavity revealed adequate structure of buccal, labial, mandibular, lingual, and velar tissues for speech purposes. At rest, IN demonstrated a closed mouth position and did not drool.
Function: Strength and range of motion of all articulators appeared within normal limits upon gross observation.
Language
IN’s receptive and expressive language skills were assessed via clinical observation and during conversation. Standardized tests were not used, as Pena & Quinn (1997), found that language ability is best assessed in tasks that match the language use in the home. As IN is a bilingual and bicultural child, standardized tests would not be a valid measurement due to cultural biases, as they are not normed upon her speech community. For this reason, IN’s language was assessed using language samples only.
Receptive Language
IN’s receptive language skills were assessed via clinical observation during conversation. IN demonstrated age-appropriate receptive language skills in both English and Spanish. For example, she was able to answer a variety of “wh-” questions (e.g. “So why were the people looking at it?” “Qué te gusta hacer con tus amigas?” “Quién es tu mejor amiga?”). She also made inferences based on visual information during the subway photo task and was able to connect the scenario depicted in the photo to a personal experience of her own.
IN was able to carry out complex multi-step directions (e.g. “Choose an item to paint and don’t pick anything over $30!” “After you put your backpack down, come sit at the table”) and answered complex questions (“Did you go home before you came here?” “Tu amiga que habla español juega contigo los fines de semana?”) in both English and Spanish. She identified story elements including characters, setting, and plot. IN was also able to adequately synthesize main events of a story in her retell of the movie, The Lorax. She also demonstrated understanding of academic language and concepts by describing a current science project and including academic vocabulary (e.g. glaciers, ecosystems) in her description.
Expressive Language
IN’s expressive language skills were assessed through clinical observation during conversation and story retell. IN presented with age-appropriate expressive language skills in both English and Spanish. IN produced a story retell in English only, as she was reluctant to produce a narrative in Spanish. When the clinician asked IN to tell her a story in Spanish, she replied, “Ummm, I don’t really want to,” and appeared timid. According to Paradis, et al (2004), language use in bilingual children is heavily influenced by context and audience. As IN and the clinician have always spoken in English throughout their relationship, this could explain why IN was hesitant or uncomfortable to speak in Spanish.
Analysis of IN’s story retell reveals age-appropriate narrative elements. IN described complex episodes of a story. She produced a story retell that was over 8 minutes long. She demonstrated adequate sequencing skills, as she frequently used transitional markers (first, then, at the end) to connect episodes of the plot. The following is illustrative and indicates syntactic complexity, good narrative structure, and metalinguistic awareness.
“So then at the end, actually the boy wanted to plant the seed but the man, the old man, actually saw the Lorax came, come, when he had came out of the house.”
In this excerpt, the phrase “at the end” adds temporal sequencing to the overall structure of the narrative. Additionally, the excerpt contains multiple clauses within a single utterance joined by the conjunction “but.” IN also demonstrated metalinguistic awareness when she self-corrected the verb “came” to the present tense “come.” These are indicative of age-appropriate narrative and expressive language skills.
Analysis of Story Retell
Microanalysis of IN’s story retell revealed age-appropriate morpho-syntactic skills in oral language. IN utilized complex and embedded sentences (“When I was coming down the stairs, it was by the back”), clausal cohesion (see below), and few morpho-syntactic errors. Language transfer from both Spanish and influence from AAVE was noted, as discussed below.
Clausal Cohesion (cohesive markers are underlined)
The following is a sample of IN’s use of clausal cohesion during the description of the subway picture and her story retell.
| Temporal | Causal | Relational | |
| Subway picture | The bus driver didn’t see me when I was small | It was cuz he was small | I think when a person, who was trying to get out of the train |
| I kinda got stuck cuz I was little | there was one seed that was left | ||
| Story retell (The Lorax) | he gave it to the boy so he could plant it | So there was only a seed left, so um, so the everybody and the animals, where the trees were, had left, so even the Lorax left | |
| And then um, actually everybody started singing | come and see the, see the only tree that had, the only puffy tree, so everybody came around it and started looking at it | it was the only one that was there | |
| Cause that was the only tree, only puffy tree, that was left because it was actually from um the old man | that was the only tree, only puffy tree, that was left | ||
| he gave it to the boy soeverybody could see that | he stayed where he was |
IN frequently used complex and compound sentences with a variety of cohesive markers in order to add syntactic complexity to her narrative.
Lexical Diversity:
The following low-frequency words were noted in IN’s narrative:
- Squished
- Scarves
- Puffy
- Poofy
- Governor
- Guards
- Moustache
- Protecting
- Glowing/glows
IN’s word choice was influenced by the topic of the narrative. Her use of such descriptive words as “moustache,” “glowing,” and “puffy” provided greater specificity and detail to enhance the overall descriptiveness of her story retell.
Evidence of Language Transfer
IN demonstrated transfer from Spanish as well as code switching into African American Vernacular English. Spanish influence was noted in certain syntactic structures. According to Wolfram (2004), the use of simple past had + verb is a common feature of AAVE utilized in the narratives of preadolescents with exposure to this dialect. Please see below for examples of language transfer.
Spanish-English transfer
| Utterance | Notes |
| And they were, there was the other that came was a man who had a moustache, and I think he was selling water | Spanish – “el otro” used instead of more specific term |
| I think there, the grandma of the boy came, the mother came so umm, so I think that was it, and the whole city that came | Spanish – possessive construction (la abuela del niño) |
AAVE-SAE Code Switching
| So then at the end, actually the boy wanted to plant the seed but the man, the old man, actually saw the Lorax came, come, when he had came out of the house | Simple past had + verb (Wolfram 2004); equivalent to use of simple past |
Impressions
IN, a 10-year-old bilingual (Spanish/English) female, presented with age-appropriate expressive, receptive, and narrative language skills. Strengths included high level of detail provided in narrative, use of low frequency vocabulary, inference skills, use of cohesive markers and syntactic complexity, and comprehension of oral language. IN’s skills in both English and Spanish appear to be age appropriate based upon clinical observation.
Although IN is in a subtractive bilingual environment at school, as all instruction is in English only, she maintains both exposure to and use of Spanish in the home and among her extended family, as well as in her community. IN’s use of conversational Spanish was observed to be age-appropriate and functional as observed in this evaluation. While a narrative sample was not obtained in Spanish, based on IN’s conversational skills during the evaluation, as well as parent report of her use and comprehension of Spanish in the home, it was determined that IN’s general language skills in Spanish are strong as well. Additionally, IN’s academic progress, as reported by her parents, is indicative of strong academic language skills in English. Her performance during this evaluation demonstrates that she is a true sequential bilingual learner.
Recommendations
No speech or language intervention is indicated at this time.
References
Paradis, J., Genesee, F. &. Crago, M. (2010). Dual language development and disorders: A handbook on bilingualism and second language learning (2nd Ed.) Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
Paul, R. (2007). Language Disorders From Infancy Through Adolescence: Assessment and intervention (3rd Ed.) St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier.
Peña, E. & Quinn, R. (1997). Task familiarity: Effects on the test performance of Puerto Rican and African American children. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch, 28, 323-332.
Westby, C. (1988). Development of narrative language abilities. In G. Wallach & K. Butler (Eds.), Language learning disabilities in school-age children (pp. 103-127). San Diego, CA: College Hill Press.
Wolfram, W. (1969). “The grammar of urban African American Vernacular English.” In Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol. 2, Morphology and Syntax, ed. Bernd Kortman and Edgar W. Schneider, 111-132. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
