A University psychologist has played an important role in a research breakthrough in the assessment of language development for bilingual two-year-olds.
In a study, led by the University of Plymouth, Kent’s Dr Kirsten Abbot-Smith and academics from eight other UK universities demonstrated for the first time that typically-developing bilingual two-year-olds, who are learning a language which has similar sounds and structures to English, know more words than those who are learning a language which is very different to English.
This information allowed the researchers to develop the first toolkit for health professionals to accurately assess how well bilingual pre-school children are learning language.
Currently, all two-year-olds are required to have a health assessment to monitor their development. It is hoped that the new UK Bilingual Toddler Assessment Toolkit can become a standard component in that assessment. It can also be used by a wide range of health practitioners, including speech and language therapists, social workers, educational psychologists, and GPs.
Dr Abbot-Smith, of the University’s School of Psychology, carries out research on the development of accurate language screening measures for use by education professionals. She is also an expert on the development of verbal social communication.
The study, entitled Vocabulary of 2-Year-Olds Learning English and an Additional Language: Norms and Effects of Linguistic Distance was led by Dr Caroline Floccia, of the University of Plymouth. It is published in the journal Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.