Native Language Testing and Disability Assessment Complexities

Native Language Assessment Mandates

• Fundamental Testing Requirement:
  • Educational and psychological evaluations—including IQ tests and all other standardized testing instruments—must be administered to children in their native language.
  • Testing in a child's native language is essential to ensure assessment validity and to prevent confounding language acquisition status with cognitive ability.

Diagnostic Complexity in Students with Disabilities

• Intersectionality of Language and Disability:
  • The evaluation process becomes significantly more complex when assessing children who present with disabilities alongside non-native language backgrounds.
  • Assessment procedures must account for both linguistic diversity and specific physical, cognitive, sensory, or developmental disabilities without misattributing linguistic differences to disability impairments or vice versa.