{"id":1412,"date":"2026-08-30T22:53:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2026-09-01T11:16:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T01:16:25","slug":"cvc2026-709","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/cvc2026-709\/","title":{"rendered":"CVC2026-709 \u2013 Language difference or language disorder? Developing culturally responsive scoring guidelines for a test of Icelandic"},"content":{"rendered":"
Presentation \u2013 CVC2026-709<\/span><\/div>\n

Language difference or language disorder? Developing culturally responsive scoring guidelines for a test of Icelandic<\/h1>\n
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Rebekka R\u00e1n Magn\u00fasd\u00f3ttir,<\/strong> University of Iceland, Iceland<\/p>\n

Kathryn Crowe,<\/strong> University of Iceland, Iceland<\/p>\n

Helen Koulidobrova,<\/strong> Central Connecticut State University, United States<\/p>\n

Karla N. Washington,<\/strong> University of Toronto, Canada<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Presentation Withdrawn<\/p>\n

Background: <\/strong>Speech-language pathologists assessing multilingual children face the challenge of interpreting whether a child\u2019s poor performance on a standardised language test is the result of a language difference related to the child being multilingual or a true developmental language disorder (DLD). One solution is to consider children\u2019s responses in accordance with grammatical features used by adults belonging to the same language community.<\/p>\n

Aim: <\/strong>To analyse adult-informed response patterns of Icelandic-Polish speaking children, the largest group of multilingual children in Icelandic preschools.<\/p>\n

Method\/approach:<\/strong> Responses to three expressive morphosyntactic subtests of a standardised test of children\u2019s Icelandic skills were analysed (Naming, Grammar, Meaning and Inferences) from 19 Polish-speaking adults who had learned Icelandic as an additional language and 28 children aged 4\u20135 years who spoke Icelandic and Polish. A coding system was developed and applied to the analysis of the entire dataset: (a) Polish-influenced morphosyntactic structure, (b) Polish-influenced lexical variation, and (c) use of functional description. Ethics approval was obtained from V\u00edsindasi\u00f0anefnd and Si\u00f0anefnd h\u00e1sk\u00f3lanna um v\u00edsindaranns\u00f3knir.<\/p>\n

Results\/findings: <\/strong>All three themes of crosslinguistic influences were observed in both adult and child responses. Polish-influenced morphosyntactic structure was the most frequent observation, except in the Naming subtest, where functional description was more prevalent.<\/p>\n

Conclusion: <\/strong>Children\u2019s standardised scores most often fell below the typical range, even in the range of scores indicative of DLD, and responses were found to be highly influenced by Polish. This suggests that poor performance may indicate cross-linguistic language differences rather than DLD for many children.<\/p>\n

Implications for children and families: <\/strong>Children and families will learn about how knowing one language can influence other languages that you speak.<\/p>\n

Implications for practitioners:<\/strong> Practitioners will learn why the use of standardised assessments is biased when used with multilingual children and may lead to incorrect diagnosis of language disorders, and how this can be overcome.<\/p>\n

Funding: <\/strong>Menntaranns\u00f3knasj\u00f3\u00f0ur [219261-051].<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>:<\/strong> multilingual, language, morphosyntax, Icelandic, Polish, speech-language pathology, developmental language disorder<\/p>\n

This presentation relates to the following <\/strong>United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n