Assessment in Farsi–English Emerging Bilingual Children: A Tutorial

Abstract

Emerging bilingual children represent a diverse population with regard to their language learning histories and individual factors. When assessing a bilingual child, it is important to accurately differentiate typical second-language learning characteristics from differences that indicate a disorder. The Iranian scholarly and clinical communities have established essential linguistic norms and identified linguistic and nonlinguistic indicators of speech and language disorder in Farsi-speaking children. The community has also developed assessment tools that are useful when evaluating the language skills of bilingual Farsi-English–speaking children. We present some relevant characteristics of the Farsi-speaking community and summarize the literature related to linguistic norms and the characteristics of the Farsi language, particularly related to the phonological and morphosyntactic structure of Farsi. To illustrate the diversity in bilingual children's profiles and the need for individualized assessment, we present two case studies of sequential emerging Farsi–English bilingual children. We present the children's assessment results and report clinical indicators of a language disorder. The case examples are used to highlight several recommendations for conducting individualized and culturally sensitive assessments. This tutorial highlights the need for a comprehensive and individualized assessment of a bilingual child. Specific assessment tools and procedures are outlined to support clinicians in completing accurate and sensitive evaluations of Farsi–English bilingual children.