Monolingual or bilingual intervention for primary language impairment? A randomized control trial

Area of Science:

• Speech-language pathology
• Developmental linguistics
• Pediatric audiology

Background:

• Bilingual children with primary language impairment (PLI) present unique challenges for intervention.
• Current clinical practices often recommend interventions feasible within existing healthcare systems.
• Parental involvement is increasingly recognized as crucial for effective language therapy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the clinical effectiveness of monolingual versus bilingual language intervention for bilingual children with PLI.
• To evaluate interventions involving speech-language pathologist-parent collaboration.
• To assess the feasibility of recommended clinical methods for bilingual language intervention.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial with 29 bilingual children (mean age 5 years) with PLI.
• Three groups: monolingual treatment, bilingual treatment (with parent collaboration), and no-treatment control.
• Sixteen sessions targeting vocabulary and syntax in French, with bilingual treatment also incorporating the home language.

Main Results:

• Significant improvement in French vocabulary was observed, but no difference between monolingual and bilingual treatment groups.
• Syntax gains were not significantly attributable to the treatment compared to the control group.
• No significant gains were noted in the children's home language.

Conclusions:

• The bilingual intervention, despite parent collaboration, did not create a sufficiently intensive bilingual context to outperform monolingual treatment.
• Current intervention approaches may not be adequately tailored to meet the specific needs of bilingual children with PLI.
• Further research is essential to develop and validate effective clinical modifications for bilingual language interventions.