# Language Screening of Pre-School Bilingual (Spanish-English) Children

Presented by Aquiles Iglesias, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, University of Delaware  
Jill de Villiers, Ph.D., Smith College  
Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D., University of Delaware

## Take Home Messages
- Language screening is an important first step in identifying children at-risk for developing language disorders.
- Screeners must assess product (what the child has learned) and process (child's ability to learn language).
- Language screener should provide practitioners and parents information on TD children's strengths and needs.
- Ideally, screeners should not require specialized training, should be automatically scored, and produce output that is easily interpreted by parents and teachers.

## Principles Guiding Development of the QUILS:ES

| Principle                                                                                           |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Capture child's overall language skills-regardless of language                                     |
| Dialect neutral assessment that captures multiple domains of language and language learning         |
| Reduce burden on administrator Minimize training/expertise/language fluency of administrator       |
| Provide useful information to examiners, teachers, and parents                                     |

| Action                                                                                              |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Assess in Spanish and English                                                                        |
| Score assessment to capture strength and needs, regardless of language                              |
| Assess Product (what the child knows-vocabulary and grammar) and Process (ability to learn language) |
| Sensitive to cultural and linguistic variations                                                     |
| Animation of some items                                                                             |
| Assess receptive language                                                                            |
| Self-contained assessment                                                                           |
| Stimuli/speaker                                                                                    |
| Self-scoring                                                                                       |
| Automatic Report (examiner, teacher, parent)                                                      |
| Go beyond Pass/Fail                                                                                |
| Identify strengths and needs                                                                        |

## QUILS:ES
- A new kind of screener
- 15 minutes per section
- Dynamic events can be presented by animation
- Automatic narration and scoring
- Automatic reporting functions
- Does not need a professional to test
- Children like it!

### Assessment of Linguistic Environment
- QUILS: ES Language Questionnaire
- **Goal**: Determine whether child should be assessed with QUILS or QUILS: ES

| AREAS                | TYPES                   |
|----------------------|------------------------|
| Vocabulary           | Nouns                  |
|                      | Verbs                  |
|                      | Prepositions           |
|                      | Conjunctions           |
| Syntax               | Wh-Questions           |
|                      | Past Tense             |
|                      | Prepositional Phrases   |
|                      | Embedded Clauses       |
| Process              | Verb Learning          |
|                      | Noun Learning          |
|                      | Adjective Learning     |
|                      | Converting Active to Passive|

| ITEMS(Examples)                       |        |
|----------------------------------------|--------|
| English                                | Spanish |
| Fireworks                              | El recogedor |
| Who is leaning?                        | ¿Quién está saludando? |
| Firefighters are between cars.         | La muñeca está arriba de los regalos. |
| Who cleaned while the baby slept?     | ¿Quién se deslizó por el tobogán después que llegó el autobús? |
| How is the boy filling the washtub?   | ¿Qué le está cayendo encima a la niñita? |
| Where was the wheel?                   | ¿Dónde estaba el pájaro? |
| Find the dog behind the black table.   | Encuentra la bandera debajo de un mono sucio. |
| What did Cowboy Bob tell Mia to do?    | ¿A dónde le dijo la abuelita a Javier que fuese? |
| Find someone is ruling something to someone.| Encuentra, el señor está ruleando a una niña |
| Can you show me another sub?           | Me puedes enseñar otro mepe? |
| What else is dorbish?                  | Qué otra cosa es petosa? |
| Which one got lummed?                  | ¿Qué fue rusiado? |

### Behind the Scene Scoring
| Type                          | Area     | Eng. | Span. | Eng. | Span. | Eng. | Span. | Score | Language |
|-------------------------------|----------|------|-------|------|-------|------|-------|-------|----------|
| Wh-Questions                  | Syntax   | 3    | 3     | 3    | 2     | 1    | 0.67  | 1     | English  |
| Past Tense                    | Syntax   | 4    | 4     | 0    | 2     | 0    | 0.5   | 0.5   | Spanish  |
| Prepositional Phrases         | Syntax   | 4    | 3     | 2    | 2     | 0.5  | 0.67  | 0.67  | Spanish  |
| Embedded Clauses              | Syntax   | 4    | 4     | 0    | 1     | 0    | 0.25  | 0.25  | Spanish  |
| Verb Learning                 | Process  | 4    | 4     | 1    | 1     | 0.25 | 0.25  | 0.25  | Both     |
| Converting Active to Passive   | Process  | 2    | 3     | 1    | 3     | 0.5  | 1     | 1     | Spanish  |
| Noun Learning                 | Process  | 4    | 4     | 2    | 3     | 0.5  | 0.75  | 0.75  | Spanish  |
| Adjective Learning            | Process  | 4    | 4     | 0    | 2     | 0    | 0.5   | 0.5   | Spanish  |
| Nouns                         | Vocab    | 4    | 4     | 3    | 4     | 0.75 | 1     | 1     | Spanish  |
| Verbs                         | Vocab    | 4    | 4     | 1    | 2     | 0.25 | 0.5   | 0.5   | Spanish  |
| Prepositions                  | Vocab    | 4    | 4     | 2    | 4     | 0.5  | 1     | 1     | Spanish  |
| Conjunctions                  | Vocab    | 4    | 4     | 0    | 3     | 0    | 0.75  | 0.75  | Spanish  |

## Summary and Recommendation
Based on the Overall Best Score, the student is not recommended for follow-up assessment at this time. Based on the student's individual Area Best Score and Best Assessment, the student is not recommended for follow-up instruction or activities focusing on any individual area.

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Date recording awarded: Webinar created May 18th, 2022  
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