# Diagnostic identification of language and reading disorders among bilingual learners

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AT COLUMBIA · 2024 · $645,792

## Abstract

A major problem in research and practice is that bilingual students in the U.S. are often misidentified having
language and reading disorders. Both over- and under-diagnosis of disorders have serious consequences,
including long-term reading difficulty and potential high school dropout. This highlights a critical need for valid,
accurate diagnostic protocols to reliably identify language and reading disorders among young bilingual learners.
Consequently, the long-term goal of the proposed research is to establish practical, accurate diagnostic protocols
for identifying language and reading disorders among bilingual learners early in children’s development.
Representing the next step toward this goal, the overall objective of this project is to generate assessment
protocols that have evidence of reliability and validity for identifying language and/or reading disorders among
Spanish-English bilingual learners in kindergarten to 2nd grade. Through annual assessments of children’s
decoding and linguistic comprehension skills in Spanish and English, we will integrate information from static
bilingual assessment, learning-based dynamic assessment, and parent/teacher report to identify accurate,
reliable markers of language and reading disorders. Three specific aims will be addressed. First, we will develop
an empirically derived protocol to identify word reading difficulty (WRD; also, dyslexia) among Spanish-English
bilingual children across kindergarten through second grade. Second, we will develop an empirically derived
protocol to identify developmental language disorder (DLD) among Spanish-English bilingual children across
kindergarten through second grade. Third, we will identify how heterogeneity in reading ability influences links
between word reading, oral language, and reading comprehension, measured continuously. This work is
significant because it will substantially advance diagnostic practice for identifying language and word reading
disorders among bilingual learners, contributing to accurate diagnoses to prevent students from falling behind
their peers during the early elementary years. Early identification of bilingual students likely to have difficulty in
school allows educators to allocate specialized resources and individualized instruction to maximize gains for
those students. This work is innovative because it fills a critical need to establish classification protocols for both
WRD and DLD with evidence of reliability and validity for young bilingual children, focuses on bilingual learners
with a wide range of English and Spanish exposure, use, and proficiencies, and integrates cutting-edge dynamic
and static assessment procedures (including consideration of student responsiveness to intervention) to improve
the reliability and validity of diagnostic classification, and considers language and reading development
simultaneously to improve identification of subgroups of children with reading difficulty.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10980670
- **Project number:** 1R01HD114547-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AT COLUMBIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Lisa Fitton
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $645,792
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-24 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10980670

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10980670, Diagnostic identification of language and reading disorders among bilingual learners (1R01HD114547-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10980670. Licensed CC0.

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