This episode is a conversation about the neuropsychology of bilingualism, with a focus on children and the developing brain. We review concepts including language acquisition during fetal and early life development, sequential versus simultaneous bilingualism, L1 versus L2, BICS and CALP, cognitive effects of bilingualism (particularly executive functions), neuroanatomy and neuroimaging, and impact of SES on language development. We also cover clinically oriented topics related to conducting neuropsychological evaluations in bilingual children, such as assessing language proficiency prior to cognitive testing, effectively utilizing interpreters, normative data selection, report writing, feedback, and teleneuropsychology.
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Guest disclosures: None.
About Veronica
Veronica Bordes Edgar, PhD, ABPP is a Professor with joint faculty appointments in Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center. She serves as a bilingual Pediatric Neuropsychologist at Children’s Health in Dallas. At UT Southwestern Medical Center, she serves as Co-Director for the Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and is the Director of Clinical Training for the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program. She earned her PhD from Arizona State University after completing her internship at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at The University of Minnesota Medical School. She is Board certified through the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) in Clinical Neuropsychology and Pediatric Neuropsychology. Dr. Bordes Edgar is President of the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology (ABCN). She is Associate Editor of Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology and on the Editorial Board for Child Neuropsychology. Dr. Bordes Edgar is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA, Division 40), the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN) and the Hispanic Neuropsychological Society (HNS). Dr. Bordes Edgar has received several national awards including the 2021 Tony Wong Diversity Award for Outstanding Work Related to Diversity as a Mentor from NAN, the 2023 Jerry Sweet Leadership Award from the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology, the 2023 Hispanic Health Leadership Award from the National Hispanic Medical Association for the work done by HNS, and most recently the 2024 Mentorship in Cultural Neuropsychology Award from HNS.
Dr. Bordes Edgar’s clinical expertise is in the area of pediatric cultural neuropsychology. She has particular interest in working with children who have neurodevelopmental disorders both acquired and genetic, as well as bilingual children who are medically complex. Dr. Bordes Edgar’s research expertise is aligned with her clinical interests, as well as in bilingual and cultural issues related to neuropsychology. She has 32 peer-reviewed publications and given over 180 regional, national and international presentations, more than two-thirds of which have been invited speaking engagements.
Resources
Article:
Practical Considerations in the Neuropsychological Assessment of Bilingual (Spanish-English) Children in the United States: Literature Review and Case Series (see Table 1)
Measures:
Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test – Spanish-Bilingual, Fourth Edition (EOWPVT-4)
Receptive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test – Spanish-Bilingual, Fourth Edition (ROWPVT-4)
Woodcock-Munoz language survey – Third edition (provides CALP score in English and Spanish)
References
Arias, F., Safi, D. E., Miranda, M., Carrión, C. I., Diaz Santos, A. L., Armendariz, V., … & STAR Consortium. (2020). Teleneuropsychology for monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speaking adults in the time of COVID-19: Rationale, professional considerations, and resources. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 35(8), 1249-1265.
Bialystok, E. (2017). The bilingual adaptation: How minds accommodate experience. Psychological bulletin, 143(3), 233-262.
Blom, E., Boerma, T., Bosma, E., Cornips, L., & Everaert, E. (2017). Cognitive advantages of bilingual children in different sociolinguistic contexts. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 552-563.
Bordes Edgar, V., Arredondo, P., Kurpius, S. R., & Rund, J. (2011). A longitudinal analysis of Latina/o students’ academic persistence. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 10(4), 358-368.
Bordes Edgar, V., Dorsman, K. A., Horton, D., Messahel, S., & MacDonald, B. (2024). Neuropsychological assessment in rare pediatric neurogenetic disorders: considerations for cross-cultural clinical research. Child Neuropsychology, 30(6), 900-917.
Bordes Edgar, V., Meneses, V., Shaw, D., Romero, R. A., Salinas, C. M., & Kissel, A. (2022). Clinical utility of the ECLECTIC framework in providing culturally-informed autism spectrum disorder evaluations: A pediatric case-based approach. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 36(5), 1148-1171.
Bordes Edgar, V. B., & Romero, R. A. (2019). Culture and language diversity in pediatric neuropsychology. Clinical cultural neuroscience: An integrative approach to cross-cultural neuropsychology.
Canas, A., Bordes Edgar, V., & Neumann, J. (2020). Practical considerations in the neuropsychological assessment of bilingual (Spanish-English) children in the United States: Literature review and case series. Developmental Neuropsychology, 45(4), 211-231.
Celik, S., Kokje, E., Meyer, P., Frölich, L., & Teichmann, B. (2022). Does bilingualism influence neuropsychological test performance in older adults? A systematic review. Applied Neuropsychology: Adult, 29(4), 855-873.
Gunnerud, H. L., Ten Braak, D., Reikerås, E. K. L., Donolato, E., & Melby-Lervåg, M. (2020). Is bilingualism related to a cognitive advantage in children? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 146(12), 1059-1083.
Judd, T., Capetillo, D., Carrión-Baralt, J., Mármol, L. M., Miguel-Montes, L. S., Navarrete, M. G., … & NAN Policy and Planning Committee. (2009). Professional considerations for improving the neuropsychological evaluation of Hispanics: a National Academy of Neuropsychology education paper. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 24(2), 127-135.
Paplikar, A., Alladi, S., Varghese, F., Mekala, S., Arshad, F., Sharma, M., … & ICMR-NCTB Consortium. (2021). Bilingualism and its implications for neuropsychological evaluation. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 36(8), 1511-1522.
Rivera Mindt, M., Arentoft, A., Kubo Germano, K., D’Aquila, E., Scheiner, D., Pizzirusso, M., … & Gollan, T. H. (2008). Neuropsychological, cognitive, and theoretical considerations for evaluation of bilingual individuals. Neuropsychology review, 18, 255-268.
Rosselli, M., Ardila, A., Navarrete, M. G., & Matute, E. (2010). Performance of Spanish/English bilingual children on a Spanish-language neuropsychological battery: Preliminary normative data. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 25(3), 218-235.
Salinas, C. M., Bordes Edgar, V., Berrios Siervo, G., & Bender, H. A. (2020). Transforming pediatric neuropsychology through video-based teleneuropsychology: an innovative private practice model pre-COVID-19. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 35(8), 1189-1195.
Vega, C., & Fernandez, M. (2011). Errors on the WCST correlate with language proficiency scores in Spanish-English bilingual children. Archives of clinical neuropsychology, 26(2), 158-164.
Wong, B., Yin, B., & O’Brien, B. (2016). Neurolinguistics: Structure, function, and connectivity in the bilingual brain. BioMed research international, 2016(1), 7069274.