Adapting computerised language sample analysis for Jamaican Creole-Jamaican English-speaking preschoolers: A pilot study

This pilot study examines the feasibility of adapting the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) for Jamaican Creole-Jamaican English-speaking preschoolers. Standard SALT protocols, designed for monolingual English speakers, risk misrepresenting bilingual children's language skills by failing to account for cross-linguistic transfer. This study proposed a customised coding protocol to capture cross-linguistic transfer patterns and compared outcomes across typically developing (TD) children and those with developmental language disorder (DLD). Findings revealed that standard SALT coding significantly overestimated grammatical errors 20%-30% compared to the adapted protocol. While overall cross-linguistic transfer patterns did not differ between TD and DLD groups, differences in transfer types were observed. These results underscore the importance of culturally responsive adaptations to computerised language sample analysis and offer a framework for extending SALT to underrepresented bilingual populations. As such, this study highlights the diagnostic potential of adapted coding and the need for refined grammaticality norms in bilingual assessment.