Bilingual narrative intervention among Russian-Hebrew bilingual preschool children with developmental language disorder

Changes in narrative skills among Russian-Hebrew bilingual preschoolers with and
without developmental language disorder (DLD) were examined following Bilingual
Narrative Intervention. Eight children with DLD and nine typically developing children
participated in two six-session intervention blocks, first in the home language HL/Russian
and then in the societal language SL/Hebrew. Intervention sessions involved retelling
single-episode stories accompanied by icons/gestures, repetition, and peer interaction.
Narrative skills were assessed at four-time points. Results showed that while typically
developing children performed better overall, both groups followed similar trajectories.
Children performed better in HL/Russian across all assessments. Macrostructure improved
in both groups after HL/Russian intervention, particularly for “Feeling” and “Goal”
elements. Bilingual typical language development children showed higher lexical diversity,
with significant improvement following HL/Russian intervention. Children with bilingual
DLD made more errors in HL/Russian, but similar error rates emerged between groups for
SL/Hebrew. Earlier age of onset of bilingualism correlated with better macrostructure in
SL/Hebrew but not in HL/Russian. Findings underscore the need for tailored intervention
in both languages which considers clinical status and bilingual children’s background.