Areej Balilah

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Assistant) at King Abdulaziz University

This study investigated the differences between bilingual gifted children and bilingual typically developing children using a comparative descriptive approach. Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) were used as a tool for this study, to elicit narratives and ask comprehension questions. It examines four main dimensions: (narrativ...

This study investigated Saudi parents’ participation in and perception of 45 home literacy activities intended to enhance their children’s literacy skills, focusing on several relevant factors: child gender, parent age, parent education, and family income. The survey methodology used in this research collected data from 156 parents who completed an...

Purpose: This study examined whether Heritage Language Learners (HLLs) of English display profile effects in their performance on knowledge- and processing-dependent measures relative to the standardised mean scores of monolingual speakers. The study also investigated the influence of several experiential factors on HLL performance. Method: Part...

To address concerns regarding the utility of language measures that depend on linguistic knowledge to distinguish English language learners from those with developmental language disorder, this study compared the performance of Arabic-speaking English language learners with diverse language experiences to the performance of age-matched monolingual...

This study examined the pattern of literacy activities in the home during the COVID-19 confinement among Saudi parents/guardians and their children. The study also examined the influence of parent/guardian age, child age and gender on home literacy activities. 133 Saudi parents/guardians completed a questionnaire derived from Nebrig's (2008) Home L...

Children with a specific language impairment (SLI) struggle to learn their native language despite otherwise broadly typical development and adequate opportunities. Much of what is known about the characteristics of SLI is based on English speakers. Several theories have been advanced to explain the observation of disproportionate linguistic defici...

This is a preliminary study that examined the utility of English sentence recall and single word and nonword reading tasks for distinguishing monolingual children and English Language Learners (ELLs) whose parents were or were not concerned about their language development. A total of 1,253 children ranging in age from 6;0-9;11 (years; months) comp...

Understanding the current level of language knowledge in English Language Learners (ELLs) can present a challenge. The standardized language tests that are commonly used to assess language tap prior knowledge and experience. ELLs may score poorly on such 'knowledge-based' measures because of the low levels of exposure to each of their languages. Co...

The present study adopted an epidemiological approach to assess sensitivity to developmental change and sex differences of several language measures in school age Arabic-speaking children. Of further interest was the degree to which individuals exhibit consistently low performance across the language measures. The study invited all Arabic speakers,...

Sentence recall has been identified as a potential clinical marker of Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The extent to which sentence recall may be useful in distinguishing children with SLI from English Language Learners (ELL) has not been examined. Despite tapping existing language knowledge, sentence recall may be sufficiently sensitive to reve...