The development and standardisation of the bilingual Maltese-English speech assessment (MESA)

Abstract

Speech language pathologists working with Maltese-English bilingual children often assess and diagnose speech disorders using assessment protocols standardised on monolingual, English-speaking populations. Such tests are considered inappropriate for the Maltese bilingual children since they are not linguistically or culturally oriented. An innovative speech assessment protocol which is bilingual in nature, was developed and standardised. Children were tested in Maltese and/or English depending on their language (or language mix) exposure. A novel feature of this assessment battery was that for all of the items, children were able to respond in either language, reflecting the reality of language mixing in a bilingual population. Trends of speech development for monolingual and bilingual children aged between 2;0-6;0 years are reported, differentiating between the emergence of the ability to produce speech sounds (articulation) and typical developmental error patterns (phonology). This assessment gives clinicians a more objective view of the discrepancy between typical development, delay and deviancy for children acquiring speech in Malta. The research findings are novel and have both theoretical and clinical implications.