Grand Rounds

摘要

The evaluation of bilingual children is a complicated endeavor because there are various views of how bilingualism affects brain organization and functioning. Added to that is the challenge of determining language development of Hispanic children living in a monolingual Spanish-speaking home in a Spanish-speaking country, but mostly exposed to English language television programming and, in some cases, English language school curriculum. Our case will review the evaluation process of a 14-year-old Puerto Rican boy with previous diagnoses of expressive language disorder and Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The neuropsychological evaluation revealed an IQ within the average range, with significant differences between the perceptual reasoning, verbal comprehension, and processing speed. The case will summarize performance in verbal, executive, and psycho-educational measures with a thorough review of his developmental history and the interpretation of these neuropsychological achievement and behavioral measures in light of other variables influencing his difficulties.