McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Baker, E., Ball, M. J., Ballard, E., David, A. B., Bernhardt, B. M., Bérubé, D., Blumenthal, M., Bowen, C., Brosseau-Lapré, F., Bunta, F., Crowe, K., Cruz-Ferreira, M., Davis, B., Fox-Boyer, A., Gildersleeve-Neumann, C., Grech, H., Goldstein, B., ... International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech (2017). Tutorial: Speech assessment for multilingual children who do not speak the same language(s) as the speech-language pathologist. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 26(3), 691-708. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_AJSLP-15-0161 Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record License (if available): CC BY Link to published version (if available): 10.1044/2017_AJSLP-15-0161 Link to publication record in Explore Bristol Research PDF-document This is the final published version of the article (version of record). It first appeared online via ASHA at https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2017_AJSLP-15-0161. 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Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/red/research-policy/pure/user-guides/ebr-terms/ AJSLP Tutorial Tutorial: Speech Assessment for Multilingual Children Who Do Not Speak the Same Language(s) as the Speech-Language Pathologist Sharynne McLeod,a,b Sarah Verdon,a,b and The International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech Purpose: The aim of this tutorial is to support speech- Results: This tutorial draws on international research evidence language pathologists (SLPs) undertaking assessments and professional expertise to provide a comprehensive of multilingual children with suspected speech sound overview of working with multilingual children with suspected disorders, particularly children who speak languages that speech sound disorders. This overview addresses referral, are not shared with their SLP. case history, assessment, analysis, diagnosis, and goal Method: The tutorial was written by the International Expert setting and the SLP’s cultural competence and preparation Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech, which comprises for working with interpreters and multicultural support 46 researchers (SLPs, linguists, phoneticians, and speech workers and dealing with organizational and government scientists) who have worked in 43 countries and used barriers to and facilitators of culturally competent practice. 27 languages in professional practice. Seventeen panel Conclusion: The issues raised in this tutorial are applied membersmetfora1-dayworkshoptoidentifykeypointsfor in a hypothetical case study of an English-speaking inclusioninthetutorial,26panelmembers contributed to writing SLP’s assessment of a multilingual Cantonese- and this tutorial, and 34 members contributed to revising this English-speaking 4-year-old boy. Resources are listed tutorial online (some members contributedtomorethan1task). throughout the tutorial. he development of children’s multilingual compe- language disorders (Cruz-Ferreira, 2011). However, recent tency in their home language(s) and the dominant large-scale longitudinal research has revealed that children T language plays an important role in children’s cul- speaking more than one language achieved educational and tural identity, well-being, and sense of self (De Houwer, social-emotional outcomes similar to those of their monolin- 2015; Puig, 2010). Speaking multiple languages may have gual peers (McLeod, Harrison, Whiteford, & Walker, 2016). academic benefits including enhanced cognitive skills (e.g., In a systematic review, “limited evidence to suggest that executive functioning and working memory) and social bilingual children develop speech at a slower rate than their benefits including enhanced relationships (e.g., with grand- monolingual peers” was found (Hambly, Wren, McLeod, parents) and participation in community activities (Adesope, & Roulstone, 2013, p. 1). Lavin, Thompson, & Ungerleider, 2010; Nguyen & Astington, Timing, amount, and quality of language exposure 2014; Park & Sarkar, 2007). People in many parts of the influence the level of proficiency in each of the languages a world have a monolingual mindset (Hajek & Slaughter, person speaks. Although simultaneous multilingual speakers 2014) that (mis)takes monolingualism for linguistic health are exposed to multiple languages from birth, sequential and competence. In some instances, monolingualism is rec- multilingual speakers establish their first language(s) in ommended as the “cure” for suspected or actual speech and the home environment and then learn additional languages in educational or community contexts. Kohnert (2010) proposed a theoretical account of multilingual language a Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia development in which she identified three common charac- b ’ International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children s Speech, teristics of typical development featured among both simul- Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia taneous and sequential multilingual speakers: distributed Correspondence to Sharynne McLeod: [email protected] skills and uneven ability, cross-language associations, and Editor: Krista Wilkinson individual variation. Each of these characteristics has impor- Associate Editor: Li Sheng tant implications for the assessment of multilingual children. Received October 15, 2015 Revision received March 9, 2016 Accepted June 22, 2016 Disclosure: The authors have declared that no competing interests existed at the time https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_AJSLP-15-0161 of publication. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology • Vol. 26 • 691–708 • August 2017 • Copyright © 2017 The Authors 691 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Downloaded from: https://pubs.asha.org University of Bristol Library on 56/14/2019, Terms of Use: https://pubs.asha.org/pubs/rights_and_permissions The common pattern of distributed skills and uneven logopeda, logopedist, logoped, logopédiste, orthophoniste, ability is manifested by varying levels of proficiency in each patóloga/o de habla y lenguaje, speech pathologist, speech of the child’s languages. Language dominance is not a and language therapist, etc.). static construct and may vary depending on age, speaking The complexities of assessing multilingual children’s partners, speaking contexts, and opportunities to develop speech have been discussed previously (Caesar & Kohler, certain skills in each language. Thus, an assessment of each 2007; Jordaan, 2008; Maul, 2015; Williams & McLeod, language may show different strengths in particular language 2012) and include “referral, assessment, intervention, ser- domains distributed unevenly across the languages (Kohnert vice delivery, cultural competence, knowledge of other & Bates, 2002), emphasizing the need to regularly assess all languages, training, and collaboration with interpreters” languages to gain an accurate picture of language capacities. (McLeod, Verdon, Bowen, & International Expert Panel Cross-language associations among multilingual chil- on Multilingual Children’s Speech [IEPMCS], 2013, p. 376). dren are commonly known as cross-linguistic transfer. These SLPs have acknowledged competence in the assessment effects can occur at the phonological, lexical–semantic, and of monolingual children’s speech but must consider addi- morphosyntactic levels of language. Transfer effects between tional aspects when assessing the speech of children who languages can be positive (facilitating language performance) speak nondominant languages and dialects. or negative (impeding language performance), with the ex- The specific aims of this tutorial are as follows: tent of transfer depending on how similar the languages are 1. Provide guidelines for the assessment of multilingual (Döpke, 2000). Transfer effects reveal that multiple languages children with suspected SSD who do not speak the are mediated through a central language processing mecha- same language(s) as the SLP nism even when they are functionally independent (Blumenfeld & Marian, 2009). The cognitive interaction of languages 2. Identify key aspects and resources for the assessment within this mechanism explains why the languages of multi- of multilingual children with suspected SSD lingual speakers are impacted when speech sound disorders 3. Provide a case study to demonstrate the application (SSD) and/or language impairment is present. of the principles within this tutorial Considerable individual variation in multilingual lan- guage acquisition and skill development is due to linguistic, This tutorial is aspirational, grounded in both cur- personal, and environmental factors. Thus, group norms rently available empirical evidence and expert opinion for for multilingual development are difficult to establish even assessing multilingual children with suspected SSD. when groups are tightly defined and may appear to be homogeneous (Pham & Kohnert, 2010). Therefore, the Development of This Tutorial best practice for assessing multilingual children requires multiple measures to assess all languages at multiple points The IEPMCS formed in 2012 and has subsequently in time (Kohnert, 2013). expanded, comprising people with specialist knowledge and publications in the field of SSD and multilingualism. A subset of the IEPMCS (17 members who had worked in Tutorial Overview and Aims