Althoug this blog post discussed the SALT 2008 Bilingual Spanish-English (SE) version (Miller & Iglesias, 2008), please note that SALT 2012 (Miller & Iglesias, 2012) has just been released this month (November 2011). The Bilingual Spanish and English Story Retell reference databaes have been expanded and updated, from over 2,000 children in the 2008 version, to over 5,000 children in SALT 2012; there are now Bilingual Spanish and English Unique Story reference databases also available!

There are many additional improvements in SALT 2012, but I want to highlight two for purposes of this blog. First, there is no longer a “Bilingual SE” version of SALT. SALT 2012 is now a stand-alone product that contains the Bilingual Spanish and English Story Retell AND Unique Story reference databaes. It also contains severel additional reference databases of children whose first language was English from the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Second, SALT 2012 now comes with a text book that details the process of language sample analysis (LSA), including a chapter I co-authored with Dr. Aquiles Iglesias on bilingual LSA. I highly recommend it =)

Finally, if you have previously purchased on older version of SALT, you can upgrade to SALT 2012 for a nominal fee.

Thank you for sharing this information.

Thank you so much for delineated description of SALT Bilingual SE! Language sampling is an integral part of our assessment and it is wonderful that we now have access to this software that will facilitate analysis. Thanks for the pointers,

Ruth

Glad to hear that you are “on the bus” (so to speak) as far as integrating narrative language sampling and SALT into your assessment protocol.

You can access the Frog story scripts (in Spanish and English) here:

http://www.saltsoftware.com/training/elicitation/frogStories/

Regarding your question about software programs that allow you to listen to specific sections of the sample repeatedly, I use: WavPedal

Although WavPedal is not free, it is simple to use, highly customizable (e.g., you can adjust the number of seconds you want the sample to auto-rewind once you stop the audio), and will let you use hotkeys on your keyboard or a transcription foot pedal.

There are probably free applications out there though. For example, Express Scribe, but I can’t tell you how functional it will be.

Other than that, I know that most Sony Digital Recorders come with their own transcription software, and it’s pretty decent.

If you do find a great and free option though, please let me know. =)

I looked for the scripts for other the other Frog stories, but couldn’t find them. Where should I look?

Do you have any suggestions for specific programs that allow you to listen and have sections of the sample repeat easily? Currently I am using an old version of “cool edit” because it allows me to “loop”, but I’m wondering if there is something current out there (preferably free) that will allow me to do the same thing.

Thanks!

Additional information regarding the Bilingual Spanish and English Story Retell databases is available within Bilingual SALT SE and online at:

http://www.saltsoftware.com/salt/bilingualSE/#

Click on the, “Bilingual Spanish/English Story Retell reference databases”, link.

To summarize, however, all of the children in the bilingual databases were typically developing, enrolled in ELL classrooms and information regarding age, grade, gender, and maternal education is available.

As far as “language history” is concerned, although in-depth information can probably be obtained for each individual child in the database, the following is important to remember:

This is a normative database composed of more than 2,000 bilingual (Spanish-English) children, and every language sample you profile (i.e., compare) to either of the bilingual databases, will yield a customized comparison set.

For example, let’s say that you prefer matching children by age, and you have two language transcripts from two children (Luis and Norma) on your caseload. The language transcript for Luis – who is 6;2 – will generate a specific comparison set from the databases, which will be slightly different than the comparison set for Norma who is 6;4. In other words, although you are using the same bilingual databases, the actual children (from the databases) within each comparison set will be slightly different depending on the matching criteria (i.e., age, grade, gender, maternal education) you want SALT to use.

With this in mind, knowing the individual language history of each child from (let’s say) a comparison set based on 723 bilingual children for Luis and a comparison set based on 807 bilingual children for Norma, is probably not the information you will be seeking as far as oral language skills are concerned. Rather, critical information will be how the performance of Luis and Norma compares to the bilingual databases.

I am really glad that you’ve worked so hard to develop the bilingual version of SALT. Thanks!