Prioritizing Connectedness and Equity in Speech-Language Services for American Indian and Alaska Native Children

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN; Indigenous) students are at a high risk for language and learning disorders. This article aims to highlight how clinicians can use decolonization and Indigenization pedagogies when planning and delivering speech-language services to Indigenous students from the perspectives of Indigenous professionals. These efforts can help promote student resilience, well-being, and identity and are critical to addressing educational inequity and provide culturally responsive services to Indigenous children. Many AI/AN students receive IDEA Part B special education services including speech and language therapy. Many of these students are misidentified as needing special education due to unique learning and language environments (Soto-Boykin et al., 2021). These students bring a unique cultural heritage that is vital to their identity, well-being, health, and school success. Therefore, the goal should be to provide evidence-based services that are culturally tailored and meet the whole child. Using a precision public health approach to consider social determinants of health and historical trauma allows for leveraging of a multilayered, trauma-informed approach to addressing educational inequities.

An Indigenous connectedness framework can be used to indicate how connectedness is essential to AI/AN child well-being. This framework can be interlaced with existing learning theories to shape instruction where indigenization is a cornerstone of learning. Further examined was the influence of historical trauma, racism, socioeconomic status, and culture loss on learning and language development in AI/AN children in the context of settler colonialism. Strategies on how to use Indigenous knowledge and evidence-based teaching practices were applied to therapeutic services offered by speech-language pathologists and educators.