A hallmark of developing bilingualism is variability in timeframes and patterns of language acquisition. This journal self-study specifically addresses sources of this variability and the clinical challenges of serving developing bilinguals. Topics include comparison of phonological skills, language processing, conceptual scoring, and effects of classroom noise.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• compare phonological skills in predominantly English, predominantly Spanish, and Spanish-English bilingual children
• explain how performance on language-based processing tasks may differentiate typically developing Vietnamese preschool children from their peers with language disorders
• explain how conceptual scoring in semantic assessment can benefit bilingual language learners
• explain how grammatical morphology skills may cause typically-developing second language learners to be mistakenly identified as language impaired
• describe the effects of classroom noise on attention and speech perception in native Spanish-speaking second graders learning English
• compare the ability of monolingual English speaking vs. bilingual language learners to understand synthesized speech output

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