A cross-sectional investigation of disfluencies in typically developing Spanish-English bilingual children

Purpose

This study examined the language skills and the type and frequency of disfluencies in the spoken narrative production of typically developing Spanish-English bilingual children.

Method

A cross-sectional sample of 106 bilingual children (50 boys; 56 girls) enrolled in kindergarten through Grade 4, produced a total of 212 narrative retell language samples in English and Spanish. A specialized fluency coding system was implemented to index the percentage of total (%TD) and stuttering-like disfluencies (%SLD) in each language. Large-scale reference databases were used to classify children’s dual language proficiency profiles (balanced, English dominant, Spanish dominant) based on language sample analysis measures of morphosyntax and lexical diversity.

Results

The bilingual Spanish-English children in this study did not demonstrate significant cross-linguistic differences for mean %TD or %SLD. However, the mean %TD and %SLD in both languages exceeded the risk threshold based on monolingual English-speaking norms. English dominant bilingual children demonstrated significantly lower %TD in English than Spanish. Spanish dominant children demonstrated significantly lower %SLD in Spanish than English.

Conclusions

This study included the largest sample size of bilingual Spanish-English children investigated to date from a fluency perspective. The frequency of disfluencies was found to be variable across participants and change dynamically as a function of grade and dual language proficiency profiles, indicating the need for studies that employ larger sample sizes and longitudinal designs.