Speech-language pathologists' training and confidence in serving Spanish-English bilingual children

The purpose of the investigation was to determine the level of training and confidence of speech-language pathologists in serving Spanish-English bilingual children. Surveys were completed by 213 speech-language pathologists working in the public schools. Comparisons were made among responses from non-diverse rural, non-diverse urban, and diverse urban areas. Results revealed that approximately one-third of the sample did not receive training in multicultural/multilingual issues as undergraduates or graduate students. Approximately, one-fifth of the sample could not recall whether or not they had received training in this area. Eighteen to 25% of the respondents in the three groups received information through lectures in one or more courses. A larger percentage of speech-language pathologists from non-diverse urban areas received training on specific topics related to multicultural/multilingual topics and participated in a larger number of continuing education activities than speech-language pathologists from diverse urban and non-diverse rural areas. No differences were found among the three groups with regard to their confidence in serving bilingual children. Although speech-language pathologists had some confidence when assessing bilingual children whose primary language was English, and when working with bilingual parents and interpreters, respondents lacked confidence when assessing bilingual children whose primary language was Spanish and when working with parents who do not speak English. Implications for the profession are discussed.

(1) As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to discuss the training speech-language pathologists have received in the area of multilingual/multicultural children. (2) As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to discuss speech-language pathologists' level of confidence when serving bilingual, Hispanic children. (3) As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to articulate the implications of this study for current training programs and the profession.