Curriculum-Based Dynamic Assessment of Narratives for Bilingual Filipino Children

Abstract

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists need tools that can accurately estimate bilingual children's language abilities and thus help avoid misdiagnoses. This study addresses this need by investigating the accuracy of a novel curriculum-based dynamic assessment of narratives in distinguishing bilingual children with language difficulties (LDs) from children with typically developing (TD) language. Method: Participants comprised 34 Filipino–English bilingual children attending elementary school in English: seven with LDs and 27 with TD language. All children were assessed on narrative skills relevant to their school curriculum during a dynamic assessment involving a test–teach–test sequence. We then examined how accurately the children's scores on narrative tasks completed during the test phases, and on a modifiability rating scale completed during the teaching phase, discriminated the LD and TD groups. Results: According to discriminant analyses, logistic regressions, and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses, the modifiability rating classified the children with 97.1% accuracy. Children's scores on the narrative measures following the teaching phase were also better at predicting language group than their initial scores, with the Test of Narrative Language–Second Edition (TNL-2) Narrative Language Ability Index score reaching 100% accuracy at posttest. Conclusions: The curriculum-based dynamic assessment of narratives shows promise at distinguishing TD language from LD in a group of understudied bilingual children that is rapidly growing in both Canada and the United States. The findings compare favorably to past studies of dynamic assessment and extend this work by integrating curricular goals to the narrative assessment process.