Early Identification of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Young Children with Disabilities
When assessing young children for early intervention or special education services, practitioners need to be sensitive to the cultural and linguistic variations that exist in our society. Appropriate procedures need to be in place to determine which language will be used to conduct assessments and to ensure that appropriate assessment/screening tools are being used. It is critical to obtain a non-biased picture of the child’s abilities, in order to determine whether certain patterns of development and behavior are caused by a disability or are simply the result of cultural and linguistic differences. This Web page provides a selection of resources that address these issues. The items provided below are listed on other subject pages where appropriate, but are gathered here as a convenience to our readers. To find additional items, search the ERIC database.
Selected Resources
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Assessing All Children (2008) Chapter 8 of Early Childhood Assessment:
Why, What, and How, by the National Research Council of the National Academies.
This chapter addresses the challenges to assessment posed by groups of children who differ from the majority population in various ways. The first section reviews issues around the assessment of young children who are members of ethnic and racial minority groups in the United States and the research that has been done on them, chiefly on black children. The next section deals with the assessment of young children whose home language is not English. And the final section discusses the assessment of young children with disabilities.
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Assessment Considerations for Young English Language Learners (2007)
Espinosa, L., & Lopez, M.
(PDF: 166kb)
This paper was prepared for the National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force and First 5 LA, with support from the Pew Charitable Trusts. It discusses considerations for assessing young English language learners, strategies and recommendations. A review of current assessment measurements is included. - Position Statement on
Screening and Assessment of Young English-Language Learners (2005)
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
This supplement to the NAEYC and NAECS/SDE Joint Position Statement on Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment, and Program Evaluation provides recommendations, with specific indicators of effective practice, that are intended to help policy makers, program administrators, teachers, and others improve screening and assessment practices for young English-language learners. It includes a Where We Stand Summary and the Complete Position Statement, in both English and Spanish, as well as the Complete Position Statement with Expanded Resources.
- Minibibliography:
Early Identification of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children (Aged 0-5) (2005)
NECTAC
This annotated bibliography provides a compilation of resources related to the early identification of culturally and linguistically diverse children. (PDF: 109kb)
Find More Resources in the ERIC Database
Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education, produces the largest database of education literature in the world, containing more than 1.2 million records of journal articles, research reports, curriculum, and more.
To find literature in the ERIC database related to the early identification of culturally and linguistically diverse young children with disabilities, try a search using keywords, a phrase, or a combination of some of the ERIC search descriptors listed below. For example, try combining "Disability Identification" AND "Cultural Influences" using the advanced search option. For more ideas, see our tips for searching the ERIC database.
- Cultural Awareness
- Cultural Influences
- Minority Groups
- English (Second Language)
- Disproportionate Representation
- Disability Identification
- Evaluation
- Disabilities
- Early Childhood Education
- Preschool Education
- Early Intervention
- Young Children