Language difference or difficulty learning? Assessing early language skills to identify risk for reading difficulty among young Spanish-English dual language learners

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Project Summary/Abstract A major challenge in educational health research is that there are no well-established approaches for reliably identifying early signs of reading difficulty among dual language learners (DLLs). Given the value of literacy to individual well-being and the importance of early identification to maximize educational growth, there is a critical need to optimize assessment to identify Spanish-English DLLs at risk for reading difficulty early in the elementary years. Consequently, the long-term goal of the proposed research is to establish practical, reliable methods for early identification of reading disability among DLLs. Representing one step toward this goal, the overall objective of this project is to identify assessments of kindergarten language and preliteracy that: (1) reliably predict Spanish-English DLLs’ reading development one year later and (2) are highly sensitive for identifying DLLs classified as being at risk for reading difficulties in grade 1. We hypothesize that measures that tap multiple underlying domains of linguistic knowledge will most strongly predict future reading development, but that the relations between early language and later reading will be inconsistent across DLLs, depending on dual language exposure, use, and early code-based literacy skills. We further hypothesize that measures of transferable language skills will provide optimal single-measure discrimination for predicting reading difficulty in grade 1, but that assessment in both languages will be necessary to achieve good classification accuracy. To test these hypotheses, two specific aims will be addressed. First, this project will identify measures of DLLs’ English and Spanish language skills in kindergarten language that reliably predict reading achievement in grade 1. Second, we will determine the classification function of standardized measures of dual language abilities for identifying Spanish-English DLLs at risk for reading difficulties in grade 1. To achieve these aims, children will complete assessments of Spanish and English vocabulary knowledge, morphosyntax, early code-based literacy skills, narrative macrostructure, and narrative microstructure during kindergarten. Their parents and teachers will also be asked to describe the children's dual language exposure and use across the home and school environment. One year later, during grade 1, children will complete measures of decoding and reading comprehension in English and Spanish. This work is significant because early, reliable prediction of literacy difficulties is critical to prevent students from falling behind their peers during the early elementary years. Early identification of DLLs likely to have difficulty learning to read allows educators to allocate specialized resources and individualized instruction to maximize gains for those students. This work is innovative because it directly attends to the heterogeneity of the DLL population, examining how dual language exposure and use may influence language and reading skills across two years of schooling, focusing on the first years of elementary education. This work aligns with NICHD’s mission to maximize the potential of all children to live healthy and productive lives.