{"id":1332,"date":"2026-08-30T22:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/?p=1332"},"modified":"2026-08-30T22:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:54:16","slug":"cvc2026-624","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/cvc2026-624\/","title":{"rendered":"CVC2026-624 \u2013 Artificial intelligence and communication disorders: Enhancing access to language assessment for multilingual children"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cvc-hero alignfull\">\n  <span class=\"cvc-chip\">Presentation \u2013 CVC2026-624<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">Artificial intelligence and communication disorders: Enhancing access to language assessment for multilingual children<\/h1>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<div class=\"cvc-authors\">\n<p><strong>Insiya Bha<\/strong><strong>lloo<\/strong><strong>,<\/strong> University of Alberta, Canada<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea MacLeod<\/strong><strong>,<\/strong> University of Alberta, Canada<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe title=\"CVC2026-624 Artificial intelligence and communication disorders: Enhancing access to language assess\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ccSFVJ97KuI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>Background:<\/strong> Multilingual children are under-identified for communication disorders compared to monolinguals, due to monolingual-centric assessment practices and limited home-language tools. A shift has begun to identify inclusive strategies, including narratives and non-word repetition tasks. However, a usage barrier is the limited number of bilingual speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based translation is emerging; however, it is based on English-centric adult models, which may influence relevance to multilingual children.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aim:<\/strong> We examine the extent to which AI-based translation can facilitate home-language assessment scoring and identify multilinguals at risk for communication disorders.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Method\/approach: <\/strong>Ethics approval was obtained (Pro00151738). After consent, caregivers completed the C-QUEB and ALDeQ language-background questionnaires. We used Zoom to assess 50 multilingual children on home-language narrative storytelling (Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument [ENNI] and Global Tales) and non-word repetition (Quasi Universal Non-Word Repetition Task). We scored children based on three home-English language translation\/scoring conditions: i: AI text translation (via DeepL and Google Translate), ii: translation by a team member, and iii: direct home-language scoring by a bilingual team member.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Results\/findings: <\/strong>Our ANOVA indicates significant differences between direct bilingual scoring and AI scoring (F = 3.4; p &lt; 0.01). We found scoring differences based on the type of AI translation, language distance, and linguistic content.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong> Our findings support English monolingual SLPs, educators, and psychologists in conducting home-language assessment scoring. Early access to language assessment positively influences a child\u2019s long-term language and overall development. We promote diversity in child development and AI research by generating data from underrepresented languages.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Implications for children and families:<\/strong> If you or your child speaks more than one language, our research ensures you can access language assessments in your home language, so you don\u2019t miss important language activities and support.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Implications for practitioners:<\/strong> If you work with multilingual children, our research can help you with home-language assessment scoring and identifying communication disorders, even when you don\u2019t speak the child\u2019s language.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Funding:<\/strong> University of Alberta.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keywords:<\/strong> artificial intelligence, multilingualism, children, early language assessment, communication disorders<\/p>\n<p><strong>This presentation relates to the following <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sdgs.un.org\/goals\"><strong>United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<ul class=\"cvc-sdgs\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sdgs.un.org\/goals\/goal4\">SDG 4: Quality Education<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sdgs.un.org\/goals\/goal10\">SDG\u00a010: Reduced Inequality<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Insiya Bhalloo, University of Alberta, Canada; Andrea MacLeod, University of Alberta, Canada<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,49,1],"tags":[46,47],"class_list":["post-1332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-communication","category-childrens-inclusion","category-presentations","tag-sdg-04","tag-sdg-10"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1557,"href":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332\/revisions\/1557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}