Changing How Speech-Language Pathologists Think and Talk About Dialect Variation

In this article, we argue for a change in how professionals in speech-language pathology think and talk about dialect diversity in the US and elsewhere. Our recommendation is evidence-based and reflects a change we have made to better serve children and advocate for the field of communication disorders. The change involves replacing the phrase dialect vs. disorder with disorder within dialect . While this change in wording may seem superficial, it generates dramatically different types of conversations a professional can have with others about childhood language impairment across different dialects of English.