Spanish-speaking Children Research Articles

The impact of L1 literacy on the production of Spanish verbal passives by school-age Spanish heritage speakers

Acquiring literacy contributes to monolingual children's language development, especially with the oral production of complex sentences. However, less is known about how written language exposure impacts first language (L1) morphosyntactic growth in Spanish-speaking children in the U.S., who are educated in their second language (L2) and have little opportunities to develop L1 literacy. To investigate this, we evaluated 8–12-year-old Spanish heritage speakers' (HSs) L1 production accuracy of grammatical gender and full verbal passives using picture description and elicited imitation (EI) tasks. One group of HSs attended bilingual (English-Spanish) schools and had developed strong L1 literacy skills; the other group attended English-only schools and had weaker L1 literacy skills, confirmed with standardized literacy tasks. The children receiving literacy instruction and textual exposure in Spanish (the L1) outperformed those attending schools in English only, producing gender agreement more accurately and full passives more accurately. They also outperformed the children in English-only schools in literacy and cognitive measures. These findings indicate that experience with textual input via L1 literacy development is an effective way to aid the acquisition and production of complex linguistic forms in HSs during the school-age period.

Exploring Oral Narrative Abilities of Chilean School-Age Children With Down Syndrome: A Preliminary Study.

Narrative abilities are essential for school achievement and quality of life, yet children with Down syndrome (DS) often struggle with these skills. This work explores the oral narrative abilities of school-age Chilean children with DS. The participants were 11 children with DS aged between 7;2 and 12;1 (years; months). All participated in a retelling task using a wordless picture book. Microstructural and macrostructural performance were analyzed and compared with data from a reference database of typically developing Spanish-speaking children, matched by chronological age or linguistic abilities. Children with DS showed proficiency in identifying introductory story elements but faced difficulties with cohesion. Restricted microstructural performance and task completion time were observed. Ethical-methodological challenges and recommendations for practice and research are discussed.

Spanish-Speaking Children’s Attitudes Toward School Science: Instrument Development and Psychometric Analysis

Spanish-Speaking Children’s Attitudes Toward School Science: Instrument Development and Psychometric Analysis

Mechanistic Support Language in Colombian Spanish-speakers

Beyond basic spatial relations (e.g., teddy on table), we know little about how children learn to talk about Mechanical Support events (e.g., objects attached/hung from a surface via tape) and map them onto linguistic structures. Moreso, the majority of the research that has been done focuses on children learning English - a language that has several verbs that lexicalize support via a specific mechanism (Levin, 1993; e.g., glue, tape, clip, etc.). The current study seeks to deepen our understanding of spatial language acquisition by diversifying the populations that have been studied. Specifically, 4- to 6-year-old monolingual Spanish-speaking children and adults in Colombia viewed Mechanical Support events (e.g., girl puts paper on door via tape) and were then asked, ‘Can you tell me what my sister did with my toy?’. Both children and adults used Non-Mechanism (e.g., poner = ‘put’, colgar = 'hang') and Mechanism Verbs (e.g., pegar = 'stick'); the use of Mechanism Verbs increased from 4- to 6- years of age. In addition, whether the mechanism was visible in the event influenced how it was mapped to language; when the mechanism was visible (vs. when it was hidden), children and adults were more likely to encode the mechanism in a prepositional phrase (e.g., lo colgó con un gancho = ‘she hung it with a clip’). These findings shed light on the development of Mechanical Support language in Spanish- speaking children, the influence of context - specifically, visibility of mechanism - on language, as well as the lexicalization patterns for encoding physical support in Spanish more generally.

Utility of Parent and Teacher Behavior Ratings for Self-Regulatory Outcomes of Preschool Children: A Multi-Study Examination.

Despite frequent reliance on teacher and parent ratings of children's behavior for multi-informant assessment, agreement between teachers' and parents' ratings is low. This study examined the predictive utility of teacher and parent ratings for children's self-regulatory outcomes (i.e., executive function, continuous performance task) in four studies. Study 1 included 163 children ranging from 31 to 84 months of age (M = 55.58 months, SD = 8.43). Study 2 included 1,088 children ranging from 48 to 63 months of age (M = 55.15, SD = 3.65). Study 3 included 246 bilingual Spanish-speaking children ranging from 40 to 72 months of age (M = 56.66, SD = 6.06). Study 4 included 280 children ranging from 38 to 75 months of age (M = 55.92, SD = 4.16). Across studies, parents and teachers rated children's externalizing behaviors on the Conners' Rating Scale, the Strength and Weaknesses of ADHD-Symptoms and Normal Behavior Scale, or both; children completed a variety of performance-based self-regulation tasks. The strength of associations of parent and teacher ratings with self-regulatory outcomes was compared, and regression analyses determined the unique and overlapping variance accounted for by different raters. Teachers' ratings had larger associations with self-regulation than did parents' ratings across outcomes and studies-except for two instances in Study 4 where the associations for teachers' and parents' ratings were equal. These findings indicate that teachers supply more useful information than parents, possibly because teachers have better-informed expectations of children's behavior, and they raise questions about the utility of multi-informant assessment, at least with preschool children.

Exploring the potential of Braingame Brian for executive function improvement in Spanish-speaking children with ADHD: A pilot study

ABSTRACT Considering the implications of executive function (EF) in the core symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), further research is required on strategies such as therapies, treatments, and rehabilitation programs focused on improving EF. This study aimed to assess the potential of an EF training program called “Braingame Brian” in improving working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility in children with ADHD. The programme was developed in the Netherlands and has been shown to be effective in pilot studies of ADHD populations conducted in this country. However, it has not been used before in the Spanish-speaking population. A total of 41 children (aged 8–12 years) were assigned to the EF training or waitlist control groups. The intervention consisted of a 25-session training programme of approximately 45 min per day for nine consecutive weeks. Treatment outcomes were assessed using cognitive tasks of the trained EF, as well as evaluations of EF behaviors by parents and teachers. The initial findings suggest that the implementation of the Braingame Brian programme may be associated with improvements in working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility. These preliminary results also indicate the potential for enhancements in parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of EF difficulties in children with ADHD.

Sentence Comprehension in Spanish-Speaking Children With Hearing Loss: On the Integration of Morphosyntactic and Lexico-Semantic Cues.

Children with hearing loss (CHL) who use hearing devices (cochlear implants or hearing aids) and communicate orally have trouble comprehending sentences with noncanonical order. This study explores sentence comprehension strategies in Spanish-speaking CHL, focusing on their ability to integrate morphosyntactic cues (word order, morphological case marking) with verbs differing in their syntax-to-semantics configuration. Fifty-eight Spanish-speaking CHL and 58 children with typical hearing (CTH) with a hearing age of 3;5-7;8 (years;months; i.e., time of adequate access to sound, in the case of CHL since effective fitting or implantation) were recruited in Argentina. A sentence comprehension task using the truth-value judgment paradigm was designed, including sentences with activity verbs and object-experiencer psych verbs in subject-verb-object (SVO) and object-verb-subject (OVS) orders, thus varying in canonicity. Both groups showed good comprehension of SVO sentences with activity verbs but had difficulties with structures that deviated from canonicity. Comprehension was at chance level in both groups and at all hearing ages for sentences with activity verbs in OVS order and sentences with object-experiencer psych verbs in SVO order (both are noncanonical for the verb type). Sentences with object-experiencer psych verbs in OVS order were also comprehended at chance level by CHL and by the youngest CTH. These results suggest that Spanish-speaking CTH aged 7 years prioritize semantic information over case marking in sentences with a noncanonical syntactic structure. In CHL, difficulties with noncanonical structures seem to extend to semantic deviations, at least until hearing age 7 years. CHL might also struggle with the semantic structures of object-experiencer psych verbs beyond the age when CTH do. These findings are relevant for the linguistic assessment and education of CHL.

Becoming bilingual when access to the minority language may be compromised

Between September and December 2023, Babylonia collected questions from parents regarding their children's language development. This article aims to answer the following questions: We want our daughter to be fully bilingual - with such a high dominion of each language that people question whether she speaks any other language at all. Both my husband and I speak Spanish and English in this way, having grown up in Mexico going to an English-speaking school and then moving to the US for university and the rest of our adult lives. The actual question: how can we recreate this for our daughter, knowing that she is in the US and will not be immersed in Spanish the way we were when growing up. Plus finding Spanish-speaking child care is hard—- is two days on the weekend and evenings in Spanish enough to have her be bilingual? What would you recommend we do so that we set her up for success in both languages? She is 8 months today. I am a non-heritage speaker of another language (Spanish). I can speak fluidly but still make errors that native speakers do not make. My husband and I would like our daughter - currently 2 months old - to be fluent in the second language (Spanish) and plan to enroll her in a bilingual learning environment once she is old enough. In the meantime we join a once per week bilingual storytime, and try to read her stories in Spanish at home. My question is: for language exposure & acquisition, is it better for me to try to speak Spanish to her at home if my Spanish has errors, or just wait, stick to small exposures for now, and let her learning come primarily once she has started daycare/preschool? [Summary generated by Poe - we refer the reader to the full article in PDF format for a complete answer] This article discusses the challenges of bilingual development in children particularly in contexts where access to a minority language, such as Spanish in an English majority context, may be compromised. Interaction with fluent speakers is essential for language learning. It is beneficial for parents to speak the minority language at home and create an environment in which its use feels natural. Regular exposure, even if limited, supports the development of language skills, and exposure to varied contexts and diverse speakers is encouraged. The author recommends access to the minority language through interactions with other adults and children who speak that language, and continued use of this language even once the child starts school. Additionally, enrolling the child in a bilingual school or a school where the minority language is used as a medium of instruction can be beneficial. Finally, she notes thatparents play a key role in creating a rich language environment and promoting a positive language learning experience. In summary, the author recommends that parents: Use the minority language at home and create an environment in which it is natural for the child to use it. Expose the child to other adults and children who speak the minority language. Continue to use and expose the child to the minority language once they start school. Consider enrolling the child in a bilingual school or a school where the minority language is used as a medium of instruction. Don't give up, as there may be occasional ups and downs in the child's uptake of the language.

Profiles of early expressive vocabulary in children with typical and atypical language development

The development of early childhood vocabulary is influenced by both biological and environmental factors, which shape language acquisition. This research investigates the variability in early expressive vocabulary among typically developing children (TD), Late Talkers (LTs), and those at risk for neurodevelopmental conditions like Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Participants included 132 Mexican Spanish-speaking children: 37 with TD (M = 24.89, SD =4.01), 37 LTs (M = 24.78, SD 3.51), 41 at risk for ASD (M = 24.39, SD = 4.31) and 17 at risk for DLD (M = 37.71, SD = 4.50). The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory II was utilized to assess 23 vocabulary categories, which were grouped into six broader categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives-adverbs, functional words, routines and sounds-onomatopoeias). The results indicated differences in vocabulary distribution among the groups. Although TD children generally exhibited the highest performance, there was notable variability within this group. Both LTs and children at risk for ASD showed differences compared to TD children, with LTs demonstrating the most reduced lexical usage. Children at risk for DLD and LTs displayed similar lexical profiles, characterized by reduced use of verbs and functional words. LTs and most children at risk for ASD exhibited low usage across all vocabulary categories. This analysis identified distinct vocabulary profiles among TD, LTs, ASD, and DLD groups, with variability across vocabulary categories reflecting the unique characteristics of each group. These findings enhance our understanding of the heterogeneity in early language development across clinical populations.

The Influence of Native Culture on Children’s Second Language Pronunciation Acquisition: An Analysis of Pronunciation Errors in Spanish Children Learning English

This paper explores the pronunciation challenges faced by Spanish-speaking children learning English as a second language, focusing on the influence of native language and cultural factors. It analyzes the most common phonetic errors, including vowel substitution, consonant mispronunciation, and difficulties with stress, rhythm, and intonation, which arise due to the significant phonological differences between Spanish and English. The paper also examines how cultural attitudes toward language learning, limited exposure to native English speakers, and traditional language teaching practices contribute to the persistence of these pronunciation errors. By emphasizing the importance of increased phonetic awareness, focused pronunciation practice, and culturally responsive teaching methods, the paper offers practical recommendations for language educators to improve pronunciation outcomes. This comprehensive approach highlights the need to integrate pronunciation into the broader language curriculum and foster a supportive learning environment that motivates students to develop clearer, more natural English pronunciation.

Assessing vocabulary acquisition using a fast-mapping task in an Android application: A pilot study

Purpose The aim of this study was to explore whether a fast mapping task embedded in an Android application (FastMApp) is a valid tool to assess referent selection abilities in Spanish-speaking children aged between 18 and 30 months. Traditional assessment tools for lexical development use static quantitative methods that assign children a final score to represent their overall vocabulary level. These methods fail to provide insights into the learning process, despite their potential relevance for clinical and educational purposes. Method Sixty Spanish-speaking children participated in this study. They completed the FastMApp (a 22-trials’ fast mapping noun task including 4- and 5-item trials, with one unknown object), and their caregivers rated their child’s vocabulary on a parent-rated vocabulary inventory measure. Result The data show a high percentage of responses to the task, indicating that the children were actively complied with the task. The scores for known labels are significantly higher compared to unknown labels, and the scores for 4-item trials are significantly higher compared to 5-item trials. We observed a strong and significant relationship between the scores in this task and the scores on the parent-rated vocabulary inventory measure. Conclusion The results suggest that FastMApp is suitable for assessing early vocabulary acquisition in Spanish-speaking children.

Translation, cross-cultural adaptation, and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the dysfunctional voiding score symptoms (DVSS-Sp) questionnaire in a pediatric chilean sample

BackgroundThe Dysfunctional Voiding Score Symptoms (DVSS) questionnaire is commonly used to evaluate dysfunctional voiding and incontinence (DVI). ObjectivesTo translate and culturally adapt the DVSS questionnaire into Spanish (DVSS-Sp) in pediatric population and to assess its psychometric properties. MethodsThe process of translation and cultural validation were done. To obtain evidence of validity and reliability, we evaluated the fit of different factor models and calculated internal consistency coefficients. Also, the diagnostic capacity of the DVSS-Sp scale was assessed through a logistic regression analysis and a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Accordingly, a total sample of 248 participants was recruited (204 with a diagnosis of DVIs and 44 with no medical problems). ResultsThe cross-cultural adaptation showed an adequate correspondence with the original version. The DVSS-Sp was configured with 2 factors: Overactive Bladder (OB) symptoms (items 1, 2, 6, and 7) and Dysfunctional Elimination (DE) symptoms (items 3, 4, 8, and 9), showing excellent goodness-of-fit indices. The relationship between the factors OB and DE was low. The reliability of the OB factor was α = 0.68, ω = 0.71, and the DE factor was α = 0.56, ω = 0.57. A logistic regression analysis suggests a good diagnostic capacity of the DVSS-Sp scale. Additionally, ROC analysis showed a cut-off score of 3.5 on the DVSS-Sp scale, where the specificity was 0.907, and the sensitivity was 0.636. ConclusionThe results of this study support the use of the DVSS-Sp for assessing DVIs in Spanish-speaking children.

Interpreting the direct- and derived-Trail Making Test scores in Argentinian children: regression-based norms, convergent validity, test-retest reliability, and practice effects

Objective: We carried out two research studies (using a cross-sectional and a longitudinal design) to establish regression-based normative data, and to examine the convergent validity, the test-retest reliability, and the changes in performance with practice (1-month and 1-year interval) of the direct- and derived- (B-A, B + A, and B/A ratio) Trail Making Test (TMT) scores in Spanish-speaking children. Method: In S1 (n = 413 6- to 15-year-old children and adolescents), regression-based norming procedure and partial correlations were employed. In S2 (n = 110 6- to 12-year-old children), intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC2,1), Pearson’s r-product-moment correlations, and paired t-tests were used. Results: S1 demonstrated that age was associated with better performance on both TMT-A and TMT-B. This improvement was more strongly related to direct scores than derived measures B-A and B/A. Additionally, TMT-B was found to be more related to other executive functions (EF) compared to the performance of TMT-A. Among the derived scores, only the B-A was related primarily to cognitive flexibility, while the B + A index was associated with most EF, suggesting a general measure of cognitive functioning. In S2, fair to good test-retest reliability coefficients were found at Time 2 for TMT-A and TMT-B, as well as the B + A index, both in 6 to 8-year-olds (ICCs .61 to .74) and 9 to 12-year-olds (ICCs .53 to .65). There was a significant increase in performance on TMT-A and TMT-B from the first assessment (Time 1) to the follow-up testing at Time 2 in older children. However, this significant improvement was not observed for TMT-B in the younger group. Test scores on the TMT direct measures improved significantly across 1-year. The B-A and B/A ratio scores did not change across examinations. Conclusions: These findings have important implications for assessing EF and developing interventions that target cognitive flexibility in pediatric populations.

Dialogic and pragmatic aspects of early object realization: a crosslinguistic comparison of three Romance languages

This exploratory research aimed to assess the impact of pragmatic and dialogic factors on the choice of referring expressions at the onset of transitive constructions in three Romance languages. The study was conducted using a corpus of three adult-child dialogues with three 2;6-year-old children acquiring Brazilian Portuguese (BP), Spanish (Sp), and French (Fr). After analyzing the distribution of forms for accusative and dative objects, we assessed the impact of the input (through two levels of influence) and of the attentional and discursive status of the referents (through four degrees of accessibility). Overall, the results showed the children’s sensitivity to pragmatic factors, but we also found different uses for null objects in each language: the Brazilian child used more over-explicit forms when nulls would be accepted, while the French child used null objects when pronouns were expected. The Spanish-speaking child showed little disparity from the adults’ usage. The three children adopted linguistic forms from the adults' speech, and this strategy seems to contribute to the children's assessment of referent accessibility and the acquisition of challenging weak forms.

Advancing Dyslexia Assessment in Children through Computerized Testing.

The acquisition of reading skills is an intricate process that demands the cultivation of various domain-general and domain-specific abilities. Consequently, it is unsurprising that many children grapple with maintaining proficiency at the grade level, particularly when confronted with challenges spanning multiple abilities across both domains, as observed in individuals with reading difficulties. Strikingly, despite reading difficulties being among the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders affecting school-aged children, the majority of available diagnostic tools lack a comprehensive framework for assessing the full spectrum of cognitive skills linked to dyslexia, with minimal computerized options. Notably, there are currently limited tools with these features available for Spanish-speaking children. The aim of this study was to delineate the protocol for diagnosing Spanish-speaking children with reading difficulties using the Sicole-R multimedia battery. This tool for elementary grades focuses on evaluating cognitive skills that are associated with dyslexia as prescribed by the scientific literature. Specifically, it concentrates on assessing a range of cognitive abilities that studies have demonstrated to be linked to dyslexia. This focus is based on the observation that individuals with dyslexia typically exhibit deficits in several of the cognitive areas evaluated by this digital tool. The robust internal consistency and multidimensional internal structure of the battery were demonstrated. This multimedia battery has proven to be a fitting tool for diagnosing children with reading difficulties in primary education, offering a comprehensive cognitive profile that is valuable not only for diagnostic purposes but also for tailoring individualized instructional plans.

Neural Correlates of Telicity in Spanish-Speaking Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder.

It is broadly acknowledged that children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) show verb-related limitations. While most previous studies have focused on tense, the mastery of lexical aspect-particularly telicity-has not been the primary focus of much research. Lexical aspect refers to whether an action has a defined endpoint (telic verbs) or not (atelic verbs). This study investigates the effect of telicity on verb recognition in Chilean children with DLD compared to their typically developing (TD) peers using the Event-Related Potential (ERP) technique. The research design is a mixed factorial design with between-group factors of 2 (DLD/TD) and within-group factors of 2 (telic/atelic verbs) and 2 (coherent/incoherent sentences). The participants were 36 school-aged children (18 DLD, 18 TD) aged 7 to 7 years and 11 months. The task required subjects to listen to sentences that either matched or did not match an action in a video, with sentences including telic or atelic verbs. The study found notable differences between groups in how they processed verbs (N400 and post-N400 components) and direct objects (N400 and P600 components). Children with DLD struggled to differentiate telic and atelic verbs, potentially because they employed overgeneralization strategies consistent with the Event Structural Bootstrapping model.

Conceptual subordination in the oral retelling of Spanish-speaking children

Although retelling as a technique to assess narration has been widely used, the input modality seems to impact in different ways on the elicited text, generating a debate about the biases that may appear. To contribute to this discussion, the objective of this study is to describe the development of conceptual subordination and its forms of coding in the oral stories of Spanish-speaking children as well as its relationship with the source text. The stories of 28 five-year-old Chilean school children collected through a retelling task were studied. The analysis consisted of firstly assessing the production of conceptual subordination through the identification of asymmetric links between states of affairs. Then, the encoding forms that instantiated these links were classified. Finally, indices were constructed and applied to compare the children’s texts with the source text. During the comparative analysis with the input, three qualitative categories emerged: similar production, reformulation and new link. The results showed that the participants’ stories present significantly less production of conceptual subordination link than the source text. However, the children were able to create new links that were not presented in the story and reformulated others, as evidence of an interpretive process that goes beyond the mere reproduction of the input in these types of tasks. Regarding the encoding forms, the results were very similar between the source text and the children’s text without significant differences. Both in source texts and children’s texts, the prototypical forms of Spanish dominated, allowing us to conclude a possible input bias.

Storytelling based on generative AI to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities

This article presents the comprehensive design and evaluation of a digital storytelling system tailored forchildren aged 4 to 6 in Latin America. This system is based on generative artificial intelligence.Tests were conducted encompassing the system’s functionality, content diversity, generation times,voice evaluation, intonation, speed, and pronunciation quality. The results confirm the system’s correctoperation and intuitive nature. The generated stories exhibit a high degree of diversity, as evidenced bythe calculation of Jaccard indices, with a maximum value of 0.2 observed in the evaluations of 30 analyzedstories. As anticipated, generation times increase with the length of the stories. It was determined thatthe voice best suited for storytelling is Onyx from OpenAI’s TTS. However, pronunciation errors werenoted in all TTS model voices. According to the conducted analysis, the system produces diverse stories that promote values among Spanish-speaking children, thus emphasizing the importance of inclusivity for individuals with different abilities. It is noteworthy that no inappropriate content for children was found in any of the stories

Instrumento MAIN para evaluar las habilidades narrativas en niños hispanohablantes con trastorno del desarrollo del lenguaje (TDL)

IntroductionDevelopmental language disorder (DLD) involves the impairment of one or more linguistic dimensions. It has been observed that these children present difficulties in oral narratives at the microstructure and macrostructure levels, although there is much disparity in the assessment tools used in research. The aim of this study is to assess the narrative skills of Spanish-speaking children with DLD by analyzing oral narratives in terms of narrative microstructure and macrostructure and phonological and morphological errors. MethodThe sample consisted of 24 children: 12 with DLD and 12 with typical development (TD) aged between 7 and 11years. They were administered CELF-5, Raven's 2, and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test to assess the level of linguistic and cognitive competence and the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN), a narrative assessment tool. These oral narratives were transcribed and analyzed with the CHILDES project tools and coded with the PREP-CORP system. ResultsStatistically significant differences were observed between both groups in the number of utterances, mean utterance length and number of events narrated, as well as in the frequency of morphological and phonological errors. ConclusionsOral narratives of DLD children using the MAIN tool are shorter and less detailed than those of TD, as well as with a higher number of phonological and morphological errors. Therefore, the MAIN could be a suitable clinical tool for the assessment of the narrative skills of DLD children.

The relationship between oral language abilities and reading: The case of children with developmental language disorder

Oral language abilities have been reported to be related to reading development. This relationship seems to be determined by orthographic systems and reading development. Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) show reading difficulties, although most studies focus on reading comprehension. The present study has two main objectives: to examine the reading performance of a group of Spanish-speaking children with DLD compared to a chronologically age-matched group of typically developing children (TD); and to study the relationship between oral language abilities and reading performance using network analysis. They were administered five standardized tests to obtain measures about oral language abilities and reading performance. Results showed that children with DLD were less accurate and slower in reading than TD children. Meanwhile, the network analyses suggest strong and stable connections between reading and oral production in the DLD group. This finding confirms the importance of language abilities for reading acquisition.