Step 4: data Analysis and report writing!

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Before writing an evaluation report, the clinician must analyze and compare assessment data to other bilingual children with similar cultural and linguistic experiences. The clinician must also compare the child's performance in both languages. To make accurate clinical decisions, it is crucial for the clinician to consider the child's linguistic experiences and education, as well as criterion skills and databases that will be the basis for comparison and clinical decision making. Here are some of the tools that will support your analysis and decision-making:

Phonemic Inventory:

Including a phonemic inventory of your child's dialect will support your awareness of potential cultural and linguistic influences in their language, identify sounds in a child's phonological system, and discriminate if the child's errors are due to these language and/or sound differences. You can use your preferred source of phonemic inventories, make your own, or visit the American Speech-Langage-Hearing Asociation portal for these resources here.

Language Samples Database:

Language sample databases that include bilingual children is a great tool to compare and contrast language features and production within bilingual children of the same age and dialect. This is also a great tool to learn about these different dialects and language differences and unique characteristics. SALT Software is a computerized language sample analysis portal where you can find bilingual children's language samples for comparison. You can access this free database here.

Language Development Guidelines:

Universal milestones apply to all children regardless of their native language. In this case, children who are exposed to two or more languages should meet the same developmental milestones that other children meet; however, children with typical language development may meet some milestones in one language and not the other. For an accurate diagnosis, it is more important that they meet milestones in one of their languages rather than in both languages. The American Speech-Langage-Hearing Asociation layouts language developmental milestones from birth to five years that you can access here.

Guidelines of typical language differences in bilingual Spanish-English children:

When assessing bilingual children, it is important to consider that some language differences might be present during their development. This happens because children who are learning a new language may reflect language development that does not match the expected development pace or might have language influences from their first language in their use of their second language. These differences are common language differences for Spanish-English bilingual children with typical language skills and not necessarily a characteristic of language disorder. Let’s take a look at some of these:

Language Difference Description:	Example:
4K TV
Gourmet Breakfast
Spa Package
Private Pool

Adjectives comes after nouns.

-s is often omitted in plurals, possessives, and regular third-person present tense.

Double negatives are used.

Negative imperatives can be used.

Use of past tense -ed can be omitted.

“No” can be used before the verb as negation.

Superiority could be used by adding “more” before an adjective.

The adverb often follows the verb.

Pronoun modifiers are used.

Articles might be used with body parts.

“have” can be used in place of the copula.

Articles are often omitted

When the subject has been identified in the precious sentence, it may be omitted in the next sentence.

The dog black is mine.

I am 8 year old.

I don’t have no money.

No (Instead of don’t) jump on the bed.

We dance last Sunday.

The boy no find his car.

My ball is more big.

He eats very fast his cake.

This is the notebook of my brother.

Show me the hand.

I have 10 years old.

Pepe is going to store.

Carlos is happy. Got a cute puppy.

Adapted from: Multicultural Students with Special Language Needs: Practical Strategies for Assessment and Intervention (4th Ed.), by C. Roseberry-McKibbin, 2014, Oceanside, CA: Academic Communication Associates

The last step of your bilingual evaluation will be to write a complete and detailed report. For this step, you should combine and analyze all results and information you gathered from your assessment. Your report should describe all of your bilingual student language skills and accommodate their individual needs. It is important that you discuss this report with the child's parents so they can be aware of the findings and know how to get involved at home.

Some of the components that you can include in your report are:

developmental history and previous medical history
parents and/or teacher concerns
language use in both languages
information on receptive and expressive language
hearing and oral peripheral assessment
fluency and voice
articulation and phonology
social pragmatic skills
literacy skills
behavior and play
teacher input/academic skills
other observations

The Leaders Project portal created by Dr. Catherine Crowley provides examples of Spanish-English reports here.

To find another resource for report writing created by the Bilinguistics team click here.

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Step 4: data Analysis and report writing!

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