Pediatric epilepsy is one of the most common reasons for referral for neuropsychological evaluation in medical contexts. For surgical and nonsurgical patients alike, the goals of evaluation often include establishing a baseline level of functioning and obtaining an estimate of functioning across various domains including language. As the population of bilingual individuals continues to rise, there is a vital need to provide services in languages other than English. This is especially true for children experiencing variable exposure and instruction to multiple languages during crucial periods of language development. While some measures are available in widely used languages such as Spanish, many are not appropriately normed for bilingual children. Additionally, cultural factors must be considered throughout the evaluation process, from scheduling to providing feedback to reduce the added burden that these patients endure.

A review of culturally sensitive practices when evaluating children with epilepsy who are bilingual will be presented. This will include a review of test protocols and available measures for Spanish-English populations as well as other considerations unique to evaluation of children.

Although guidance on culturally informed neuropsychological practices with bilingual youth with epilepsy has traditionally been an area that has not been extensively studied, there is some evidence suggesting use of particular methodologies to help reduce bias in traditionally minoritized and bilingual populations.

There is a disparity among the research for English speaking children with epilepsy versus bilingual or non-English speaking individuals requiring neuropsychological evaluation. Unique challenges present when evaluating bilingual children from multicultural contexts.