Sequential bilingualism and specific language impairment: The Italian version of ALDeQ parental questionnaire

The assessment of linguistic competence in sequential bilingualism is a research issue that remains unresolved. The goal of the present study was to assess the discriminating power of the Italian version of the ALDeQ (Alberta Language and Development Questionnaire; Paradis, Emmerzael & Sorenson Duncan, 2010). The adapted questionnaire was administered to the parents of 18 sequential bilingual children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and to 105 parents of children with Typical Language Development. The results obtained revealed considerable sensitivity and specificity indexes, particularly for the full scale score. Data from the present study suggest that the Italian version of ALDeQ is a reliable instrument to be used for assessing sequential bilingual children for whom clinicians and educators are in doubt of possible language impairments.