Monolingual and bilingual children with and without primary language impairment: core vocabulary comparison

Core vocabulary is an important component of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems for school-aged children who have complex communication needs. One method of identifying core vocabulary for these individuals is to study the vocabulary of speaking children. To date, the use of core vocabulary by speaking bilingual children has not been well documented. The present study compared the core vocabulary used by children who are monolingual (French), and bilingual (French-English; English-French). We also gathered and compared language samples from French-speaking children identified as having primary language impairment (PLI), with the goal of better understanding the language differences demonstrated by children with this disability. Language samples were collected from a total of 57 children within a school setting, in a region where French is a minority language. Contrary to the hypothesis, the analysis of language transcripts revealed that there were no important differences between the core words from the groups studied.