Language intervention in bilingual children with developmental language disorder: A systematic review

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Speech and Language Therapy

Background:

• Bilingual children with developmental language disorder (DLD) present unique challenges for speech-language therapists.
• Existing literature on cognitive and language processing in this population is growing, but evidence for effective language intervention is lacking.
• Clinical decisions for intervention often focus on specific domains like phonology, vocabulary, morphosyntax, and literacy.

Approach:

• A systematic review was conducted by searching five electronic databases: CINAHL, Scopus, Psychinfo, Proquest, and Sciencedirect.
• Data from selected papers were extracted and categorized into study, participant, and intervention information.
• A quality assessment tool (QAT) was used for critical appraisal of the included studies.

Key Points:

• The review included 14 papers, with the majority showing evidence for vocabulary intervention.
• Limited evidence was found for interventions targeting phonology or morphosyntax.
• Cross-language generalization effects were observed for vocabulary, and in some cases, for morphosyntax and literacy.

Conclusions:

• A significant gap exists in the literature regarding language intervention for key areas such as morphosyntax, narrative skills, and literacy in bilingual children with DLD.
• Limited data exist on cross-language generalization effects beyond vocabulary, highlighting the need for further research.
• Intervention in the home language may yield positive cross-language generalization effects, suggesting an interactive nature of bilingual language acquisition.