title: Predictors of processing-based task performance in bilingual and monolingual children.
abstract: In the present study we examined performance of bilingual Spanish-English-speaking and monolingual English-speaking school-age children on a range of processing-based measures within the framework of Baddeley's working memory model. The processing-based measures included measures of short-term memory, measures of working memory, and a novel word-learning task. Results revealed that monolinguals outperformed bilinguals on the short-term memory tasks but not the working memory and novel word-learning tasks. Further, children's vocabulary skills and socioeconomic status (SES) were more predictive of processing-based task performance in the bilingual group than the monolingual group. Together, these findings indicate that processing-based tasks that engage verbal working memory rather than short-term memory may be better-suited for diagnostic purposes with bilingual children. However, even verbal working memory measures are sensitive to bilingual children's language-specific knowledge and demographic characteristics, and therefore may have limited clinical utility.
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Waisman Center, 1500 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, United States.
authors.forename: Milijana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Buac
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Waisman Center, 1500 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, United States.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Waisman Center, 1500 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, United States. Electronic address: kaushanskaya@wisc.edu.
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaushanskaya
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007807:Language Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D019303:Multilingualism; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014825:Vocabulary
keywords: Assessment bias; Bilingual children; Processing-based measures; Working memory