Download This work analyses the bilingualism in developmental age and its implications in the diagnosis of Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)In an increasingly multilingual society, the assessment of bilingual children requires particular attention to avoid false positives, due to linguistic difficulties related to the acquisition of the second language (L2), and false negatives, which can prevent the recognition of a real disorder. Guidelines of the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS, 2022) They represent an important reference, underlining the need to use appropriate assessment tests and to allow the necessary time for language acquisition.
The scientific literature still contains some gaps that require further exploration. It is necessary to more thoroughly study the process of learning Italian as a second language, evaluate the influence of factors such as age of exposure to the language, and develop standardized tools with specific norms for the bilingual population. Furthermore, research on the calculation skills of bilingual children is still limited. Another research perspective concerns the identification of cognitive and linguistic risk factors, useful for improving the predictive capacity of diagnosis and optimizing assessment times. Finally, understanding bilingual children's response to different intervention methods would allow for the identification of more effective and targeted therapeutic strategies.
This paper provides a theoretical framework for bilingualism and its diagnostic implications, examining reading, comprehension, and writing skills in students with learning disabilities (LD) and analyzing the guidelines for promoting more accurate, equitable, and inclusive assessment.