Development of Syntactic Complexity in Spanish-English Bilingual Children with and without DLD

Kendra Ames

Date of Submission

Spring 2025

Document Type

Closed Research Project

Degree Name

Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology

Department

Speech-Language Pathology

First Advisor

Lourdes Martinez-Nieto, PhD

Abstract

The development of complex syntax is a critical milestone in children’s language and narrative abilities and supports functions critical to academic success and effective communication (Diessel, 2004; Huddleston et al., 2022; Scott & Balthazar, 2013; Wang, 2022). While monolingual children’s syntactic development has been widely studied (Balthazar & Scott, 2018; Diessel & Tomasello, 2001a), less is known about how bilingual children, particularly Spanish-English bilingual children, acquire subordinate clauses across languages and how this acquisition is affected by Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) (Gathercole, 2002; Paradis et al., 2021). This longitudinal study investigates the development of subordinate clause   use in 54 Spanish-English bilingual children (39 TD, 15 DLD) from preschool through third grade. Narrative samples were collected in both languages, and samples from preschool, first grade, and third grade were analyzed for general language measures (mean length of utterance, number of different words, ungrammaticality) and syntactic complexity, including proportion and types of subordinate clauses (adverbial, nominal, relative). Generalized estimating equations modeled growth over time, accounting for repeated measures. Both groups demonstrated increased syntactic complexity across time in both languages. Subordination increased in both languages, although TD children produced more complex  utterances overall, especially in Spanish. While most children produced at least one complex sentence by third grade in English, only 75% of the DLD group did so in Spanish. Subordinate clause type distributions were similar across groups, but children with DLD showed reduced clause-type diversity, particularly early in development. Relative clauses were infrequent and emerged late for all children. Findings suggest that while bilingual children with DLD make gains in complex syntax, reduced clause-type diversity may be a more sensitive indicator of impairment than overall subordination use. Results emphasize the importance of dual-language, longitudinal assessment to better understand syntactic development and inform identification of DLD in Spanish-English bilingual children.

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