According to multiple studies, a referral process bias exists in the early identification of autism for children of color, in particular Latino children. Sociocultural, economic, educational, and health care barriers have significantly impacted Latino children. For example, Latino children are less likely to receive access to early intervention…

Response processes are an important component of validity to support the use and interpretation of test scores. Response processes information can provide insight into how students engage with assessment tasks and the type of errors made when solving items, as well as allow for the study of cognitive properties in items that may be associated with…

Bilingual children, the majority of whom are Spanish-English learners, now constitute over a third of the preschool population in the United States (Migration Policy Institute, 2021). Bilingual children and their families face multiple barriers to high-quality early childhood education, which are largely due to the underutilization of culturally…

There is a growing need for more information regarding the early academic development of preschool-age children who are learning to speak Spanish and English. To achieve this, studies are needed that acknowledge the heterogeneity of language abilities within bilingual preschool children, and that these variations in language abilities may impact…

The cultural and linguistic diversity of our nation continues to grow and the skills needed by speech-language pathologists to address the needs of their existing caseload continue to be vast. According to the ASHA (2016) Schools Survey, only 8% of speech-language pathologists (n=1689) reported feeling very qualified to address cultural and…

Young children's emergent literacy skills, particularly phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK), are two of the strongest predictors of future reading skill. There is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of emergent literacy interventions on the dual language PA and AK skills of at-risk Latino preschoolers who are Dual…

Child speech is highly variable. The speech apparatus--the vocal tract, tongue, teeth, and vocal folds--develop at different rates for different children, which helps explain some of the variability in children's speech. For example, the ratio of the oral to pharyngeal cavities changes as children age, making it difficult to establish reliable…

This dissertation portfolio is comprised of three first-authored pieces of writing that investigate the oral language and emergent literacy development of Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). Each piece features a unique but complementary aim. The first study investigates group differences on a battery of emergent…

Hispanic-American youth have been identified as a high-risk group for developing behavioral and emotional difficulties. Currently, there exist few behavioral and emotional screening measures targeting young children, with even fewer accessible to the Spanish speaking populations in the U.S. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether…

This dissertation examines Spanish Direct Object clitic pronouns in Argentine spoken Spanish of adults and children (ages 4;0-7;0). It concentrates on (Finite verb + Nonfinite verb) constructions that allow both pre-verbal (Proclisis) and a postverbal (Enclisis) clitic placement. Previous corpus studies have shown that lexical (finite verb),…

With the recent influx of Latinos into the United States, it is essential to understand how their backgrounds and cultures will affect the way they view their children's emotional, social, and educational development. Researchers continue to evaluate the psychometrics of various screening instruments in order to ensure a reliable and valid…

This qualitative case study examines the nature of a dual language preschool teacher's instructional practices and extratextual talk during shared-book reading practices with two different genres of books in Spanish and English. Specifically, I explore the interpersonal, ideational, and textual features of one teacher's talk in English- and…

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine if phonological production proficiency in bilingual Spanish-English preschoolers could be predicted by their language environment, language ability, and phonological production proficiency in their other language. Method: Participants were 199 Latino children and their families. Children ranged in age…

The purpose of this study was to design and establish the technical adequacy of curriculum-based measures (CBMs) of vocabulary acquisition for use with preschool children. This study sought to establish the technical adequacy of two tools that can be used for measuring benchmarks of vocabulary acquisition for both native English speakers and for…

This dissertation study employed quantitative methods to investigate the impact of adult questioning styles on children's novel vocabulary acquisition during shared storybook reading. In an effort to examine adult qualitative variations in shared storybook readings, two experiments were conducted to assess the effect of noneliciting questions…