Our society is pretty diverse, both in culture and language. We all know how crucial it is to consider these factors when assessing and/or providing therapy to the multilingual child (or the child acquiring a language different to ours). Considering the language/s being acquired by children we work is particularly imperative given that language is our core business, and not taking it into account may lead to misinterpretation of assessment findings. Assessment results that are not fully accurate will undoubtedly affect the extent to which we are able to provide intervention that is appropriate for the child. We often have the best intentions, but are frequently limited by the lack of relevant data (such as developmental norms) to help us make decisions based on relevant research evidence base. It can also feel overwhelming having to sift through all the information available, particularly when you aren’t fluent in the language/s spoken by the children we work with. In this blog, I hope to equip you with some tips on things that we should all be considerate of when assessing the speech sound development of young children acquiring several languages spoken in South Africa, as well as provide you with easy to use resources in this context. You can visit the resources page to download free resources. Additional resources are for sale and can also be found in the resources page. Keep a look out for our weekly blog, in which a different topic and resource will be shared with you. Your feedback is greatly appreciated, so please don’t hesitate to leave us a message here. Your suggestions on specific topics and worksheets are also welcome. I look forward to engaging with you, and hope that you will find the resources I share with you beneficial.

Source : SpeechOn.co