# Identifying Caregiver Behaviors that Promote Spanish Development in Preschool-aged Emergent Bilinguals at Risk for Developmental Language Disorder

> **NIH NIH K99** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON · 2024 · $130,680

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Emergent Bilingual (EB) children of Spanish-dominant caregivers represent a large and growing proportion of
the school-aged United States population. For EBs, developing proficiency in the language used by caregivers
at home is foundational to supportive family relationships and later school outcomes, yet research has shown
declines in EBs’ home language proficiency after school entry (Castilla-Earls et al., 2019; Jackson et al., 2014).
A particularly vulnerable subset of EBs are those with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), which is
characterized by low language skills despite otherwise normal development and occurs in about 7% of children.
Given the scarcity of bilingual service providers, caregiver-delivered language interventions are a practical and
promising approach to preventing and treating DLD in the home language. Yet little is known about the specific
caregiver behaviors that sustain home language development in EBs with or at-risk for DLD in preschool (age
3-5), a period when overall exposure to English increases. This project addresses this critical gap while
supporting the candidate’s transition to independence through training in child language disorders, parenting
interventions, and novel approaches to using bilingual daylong recordings. By leveraging observational language
data from two large-scale randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of a parent-coaching program called Play and
Learning Strategies (PALS; Landry et al., 2008) the current project will identify caregiver behaviors specific to
bilingual contexts that contribute to preschool-aged EBs’ home language use and skills. During the mentored
K99 phase, using existing data from a completed RCT, Aim 1 will determine the impact of PALS on targeted
caregiver behaviors (e.g., contingent responsiveness) and child Spanish outcomes with the subset of parents
who received coaching in Spanish (T=71, C=70). Aim 2 will recode video observations from this dataset to
identify home-language supportive behaviors (e.g., caregivers Spanish use, responses to child English use) that
predict children’s later Spanish proficiency (n=141). Next, new daylong recordings (n=160) will be collected
alongside an ongoing PALS RCT tailored for Spanish-English EBs at risk for DLD (risk determined via Spanish
and English language screeners at preschool entry). During the independent R00 phase, Aim 3 will determine
1) whether home-language supportive behaviors captured in daylong recordings predict child Spanish outcomes
and 2) whether PALS coaching leads to changes in these behaviors, which in turn explain child Spanish
outcomes. By capturing spontaneous language-rich interactions that occur throughout the day with different
conversation partners in the context of a larger ongoing RCT, this project promises to generate new insights into
the conditions and caregiver behaviors that support bilingual development in EBs with DLD and inform culturally
and linguistically-sustaining interv...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10914800
- **Project number:** 5K99DC021040-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Sarah Surrain
- **Activity code:** K99 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $130,680
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-08-01 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10914800

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10914800, Identifying Caregiver Behaviors that Promote Spanish Development in Preschool-aged Emergent Bilinguals at Risk for Developmental Language Disorder (5K99DC021040-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10914800. Licensed CC0.

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