Kohikohi: Literacy Information gathering/Assessment 

Guiding Principles for Speech Assessment of Bilingual Children

This information combines general best practices for assessing bilingual children's speech with steps outlined from the Speech Assessment of Children's Home Language(s) (SACHL) protocol.

Margetson, K., & McLeod, S. (2025). Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Language(s) (SACHL): A clinical protocol. In S. McLeod (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press. https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/sachl 

1. Explore and understand the Child's Language Background:

• Identify the languages the child speaks - (home language(s) and dialect(s): Knowing the child's language(s) is essential for understanding their phonological development.

• Engage a language partner - someone who is fluent in the home language(s) and who can assist with assessment

2. Consider Cultural and Linguistic Factors

• Consider your own cultural responsivity and linguistic knowledge

• Be aware of cultural differences: Understand the cultural context of the child's language(s) and how it may influence their speech and language development. Use culturally sensitive methods and materials: Ensure that the assessment materials and methods are culturally appropriate for the child and their family.

• Discuss similarities and differences in phonology between the languages  - Consider language transfer: Be aware of potential influences of the child's first language on their English pronunciation.

3. Select formal speech assessment tools and natural language samples in each language

NOTE: Avoid translating assessments: Directly translating assessments from one language to another is not recommended, as phoneme inventories differ across languages.

NOTE: Use assessments designed for bilingual children: Consider assessments specifically designed to evaluate the phonological skills of bilingual children. (LINK)

• Administer the child’s speech assessment in the language of instruction (e.g. English in English medium settings)

• Ask the assessment partner to administer the child’s home language speech assessment 

• Record assessment to help with analysis. 

• Use home language partner to provide a model of correct sounds in the assessment. 

FORMAL ASSESSMENTS

Click the link for access and information  https://www.speechtherapy.co.uk/page-18/page-16/

• New Reynell Developmental Language Scales (NRDLS):Adaptable for Multilingual Children

• Building Early Sentences Therapy (BEST)  

• MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) (parent report) 

• Bilingual Speech Sound Screen (BiSSS) (for those with speech disorder) 

• Intelligibility in Context Scale (parent report) 

• FLAC English: FLAC (Functional Language Across Countries): This refers to a series of bilingual assessment materials used by speech-language therapists. These materials are designed to assess the early language skills of bilingual and non-English-speaking children.

• BASS: Expressive language assessment. The Bilingual Assessment of Simple Sentences (BASS) examines a child's ability to produce simple sentences in home language (mother tongue) or English, or both in the same utterance.

INFORMAL ASSESSMENTS - SPEECH SAMPLES IN BOTH LANGAUGES

• Collect speech samples in both languages through conversations, narratives, and single-word productions. Include single word and connected speech samples. 

4. Interpretation and Reporting 

• Listen to the recordings, check the online transcription, and compare the child’s productions to the target adult’s productions 

• Determine the phonetic inventory: in both languages, noting the sounds they produce and how they produce them.

• Identify any phonological patterns or errors that the child is making in both languages.

• Compare performance across languages: to determine if there are any significant differences or patterns.

• Provide a summary report: Include information about the child's language background, assessment findings, and recommendations for next teaching steps.

• Collaborate between home and school: share findings and recommendations - (strengths and concerns) and plan next steps.

Key elements from the SACHL protocol integrated throughout:

• Multilingual Preparation: Considering the clinician's responsivity, learning about the home language, planning transcription, and selecting tools.

• Multilingual Collaboration: Working with an assessment partner who speaks the child's home language and involving family.

• Multilingual Assessment: Conducting assessments in both the societal language and the home language.

• Multilingual Analysis: Comparing productions across languages and using evidence for a plan.

DIBELS  (adapted from English code)

DIBELS is a set of one minute subtests, used as a screener or "temperature check" to see what aspects of the reading teaching needs addressing for that student. 

Learn more about DIBELS, from the RTLB Literacy project  here 

Teachers could consider using similar assessments in a students first language (of course, these results cannot be standardised, but may give valuable teaching information) 

Reading: 

• Letter Naming fluency

• Phoneme segmentation fluency

• Nonsense word fluency

• Word reading fluency

• Oral reading fluency

• MAZE (Cloze) 

In addition, a teacher can look at a student's handwriting ability in their first language - their rate of writing known letters, phonemes or words and assessing the ease with which they use pen and paper. A timed sample of words written in one minute could be used. 

Resource for Dual language texts 

Unpacking the books - Gagana Sāmoa

Esolonline website

https://esolonline.tki.org.nz/Media/Instructional-Series/Pasifika-dual-language/Gagana-samoa/PDFs/Unpacking-the-books-Gagana-Samoa

• p 20 Customs - background information

• p 21 - using knowledge of te re Māori

• p 24 - family letter (questionnaire) in English and in Gagana Sāmoa to get some family information useful for teachers

• p 26/27 further resources

Many of these dual language books are available online as PDFs and audio files (MP3s) at http://literacyonline.tki.org.nz/Pasifika-dual-language-books

Supplementary Enrolment Form from ESOL Online 

for parents to provide information on another language learner's language background and other interests

- NB this will need translation or the use of an interpreter if English is not a strong language for the parent(s).