Language Ability Groups in Bilingual Children: A Latent Profile Analysis

Classifying children into two language ability groups, with and without language impairment, may underestimate the number of groups with distinct language ability patterns, or, alternatively, there may be only a single group characterized by a continuum of language performance. The purpose of the current study was to identify the number and characteristics of latent (unobservable) language ability groups in an unclassified sample of predominantly Spanish-speaking children.

An unclassified sample of 431 predominantly Spanish-speaking 5- to 7-year-olds learning English participated in the study. The groups were identified on the basis of (a) language sample analyses (semantic, grammatical, and sentence-length measures); (b) language processing tasks (phonological working memory and processing speed measures); and (c) nonverbal cognitive abilities assessed using a standardized measure. All tasks were administered in Spanish. Latent profile analysis was used to examine the number and nature of distinct language ability groups in the unclassified sample.

Results indicated that a three-group model best represented the data, characterized by low grammaticality in one group, low phonological working memory in another group, and average skills in a third group.

Classifying children into two groups, those with and without language impairment, may lead to misidentification of language impairment.