Assessing Bilingual Children in Context: An Integrated Approach

Bilingual children are often referred for assessment to determine if educational or mental health supports are necessary for academic, social-emotional, or personal success. However, practitioners unfamiliar with the complex factors affecting second language acquisition run the risk of misinterpreting assessment data. For example, assessments that purport to examine a student's cognitive or academic abilities may instead measure language proficiency or the effects of immigration or poverty.

This book explores the interplay between factors impacting English language learners and considers implications for assessment. It advocates for an integrated assessment of bilingual children that considers multiple influences, such as previous education, immigration, acculturation, poverty, trauma, and even structural differences between the child's first and second languages.

In line with advances in science, several chapters explore the brain-based relationships between personal experience and language learning. All chapters provide case examples of bilingual children, as well as practical checklists of factors to consider in assessing such children.

In today's multicultural society, professionals working with bilingual children must consider each child's context before determining his or her needs. This book equips such professionals with the tools necessary for an integrated assessment.

Contributors

Series Foreword

Introduction
Amanda B. Clinton

1. Challenges and Complexities in the Assessment of the Bilingual Student
   Elizabeth C. O'Bryon

I. Insights From Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology on Cross-Language Transfer

2. Cross-Language Transfer in Bilingual Students
   Yanling Zhou, Xiuhong Tong, Jianhong Mo, and Catherine McBride-Chang
3. Neuropsychological Considerations in Bilingual Assessment: The Underlying Basis of Language Disability
   Rachel W. Robillard
4. Implications of Semilingualism for Assessment of the Bilingual Child
   Amanda B. Clinton, Wanda R. Ortiz, and Korah La Serna Guilar

II. Practical Implications for Assessment

5. Integrated Intellectual Assessment of the Bilingual Student
   Pedro Olvera and Lino Gómez-Cerrillo
6. Response to Intervention and Bilingual Learners: Promises and Potential Problems
   Catherine Christo, Erin Crosby, and Michelle Zozaya
7. Integrated Social–Emotional Assessment of the Bilingual Child
   Michael R. Hass and Kelly S. Kennedy

III. A New Vision: Integrating Concepts in Bilingual Assessment

8. Acculturation and Sociocognitive Factors
   Patricio A. Romero and Jennifer Branscome
9. Assessing Bilingual Students' Writing
   Jill Fitzgerald, Carol B. Olson, Sandra G. Garcia, and Robin C. Scarcella
10. Implications of Bilingualism for Reading Assessment
    Sharolyn D. Pollard-Durodola, Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, and Fuhui Tong
11. An Integrated Approach to the Assessment of the Refugee Student
    Karen Lee Seymour

Afterword
Amanda B. Clinton

Index

About the Editor

Amanda B. Clinton, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Puerto Rico, where her work focuses on neuropsychology, dual language learning, and social–emotional skill development within a cultural framework. She earned her MEd at the University of Washington and her PhD at the University of Georgia. She is a credentialed school psychologist and a licensed psychologist.

As a Fulbright Scholar in Medellín, Colombia, Dr. Clinton researched relationships between language structure and reading acquisition processes. Dr. Clinton has worked with second language learners from various regions of the world, including Central and South America as well as the United States, and has published and presented her work nationally and internationally.

Integration of academic materials with case examples of students of color makes this book more interesting and pragmatic.
—PsycCRITIQUES