In this paper, recently published in the Journal of Child Language, we validate the Richness scores automatically calculated in the Q-BEx questionnaire.

Here’s what we found:

❓ Do alternative richness scores fare better than the original Q-BEx score?
💬 They do not.

❓ Does a richness score including “quality-based” variables (i.e., interlocutor proficiency and diversity) as well as frequency-based variables (e.g., time spent with friends) account for more variance than a score based on frequency-based variables alone?
💬 It does.

❓Does the inclusion of parental education in the richness score or as a covariate account for more variance in models predicting children’s language abilities?
💬 It rarely does. In other words: the Q-BEx richness scores are sufficient to capture the aspects of children’s language experience that are associated with parental education.

❓Do the individual variables which make up the composite richness score contribute do so in the same way across bilingual children’s two languages?
💬 They do.

Our conclusion? Educators and clinicians can rely on the Richness scores to inform their expectations regarding the level of proficiency the child should have in each language.  And these scores can be interpreted in a similar way for both languages.  🎉

Want to know more? Unsworth, S., Gusnanto, A., Kašćelan, D., Prévost, P., Serratrice, L., Tuller, L. & De Cat, C. (2025). Unpacking the richness of language experience as a predictor of bilingual children’s language proficiency. Journal of Child Language.: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000925100305