title: Discriminating children with language impairment among English-language learners from diverse first-language backgrounds.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In this study, the authors sought to determine whether a combination of English-language measures and a parent questionnaire on first-language development could adequately discriminate between English-language learners (ELLs) with and without language impairment (LI) when children had diverse first-language backgrounds.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 152 typically developing (TD) children and 26 children with LI; groups were matched for age (M = 5;10 [years;months]) and exposure to English (M = 21 months). Children were given English standardized tests of nonword repetition, tense morphology, narrative story grammar, and receptive vocabulary. Parents were given a questionnaire on children's first-language development.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ELLs with LI had significantly lower scores than the TD ELLs on the first-language questionnaire and all the English-language measures except for vocabulary. Linear discriminant function analyses showed that good discrimination between the TD and LI groups could be achieved with all measures, except vocabulary, combined. The strongest discriminator was the questionnaire, followed by nonword repetition and tense morphology.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Discrimination of children with LI among a diverse group of ELLs might be possible when using a combination of measures. Children with LI exhibit deficits in similar linguistic/cognitive domains regardless of whether English is their first or second language.
authors.affiliation: University of Alberta, Canada. johanne.paradis@ualberta.ca
authors.forename: Johanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Paradis
authors.forename: Phyllis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Tamara Sorenson
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Duncan
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007807:Language Tests; D007808:Language Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014825:Vocabulary