Parent Report of Bilingual Children's English Proficiency and Exposure Predicts English Vocabulary and Morphosyntax

The current pilot study examined whether parent report of bilingual children's English proficiency and exposure predicted children's performance on English standardized language tests of vocabulary and morphosyntax. The goal was to validate parent report when assessing language abilities in bilingual children who speak minoritized languages.

Participants included 30 typically developing bilingual children, ages 3;0-5;0 (years;months), speaking English as a native or second language and one of 10 other languages. Parents reported their children's English understanding and speaking proficiencies as well as language exposure via the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire. Children completed standardized tests including the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fifth Edition (PPVT-5; receptive vocabulary), Expressive Vocabulary Test-Third Edition (EVT-3; expressive vocabulary), and Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test Preschool-Second Edition (SPELT-P2; expressive morphosyntax).

Parent report of English understanding proficiency predicted PPVT-5 performance. English speaking proficiency predicted both EVT-3 and SPELT-P2 performance. English exposure predicted performance across all three standardized measures.

Parent report of English proficiency and exposure converged with bilingual children's performance on English standardized tests of vocabulary and morphosyntax, suggesting that parent report is a valuable tool and should be incorporated when assessing bilingual children's language abilities. These findings also imply that parent report can offer a culturally responsive and linguistically sensitive approach to assessing language abilities in bilingual children who speak minoritized languages or dialects, especially when standardized bilingual language tests are not available or nonexistent.