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Speech and language therapy provision for bilingual children: aspects of the current service
Author(s) -
Winter Kirsten
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
international journal of language and communication disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.101
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1460-6984
pISSN - 1368-2822
DOI - 10.1080/136828299247658
Subject(s) - psychology , ethnic group , context (archaeology) , neuroscience of multilingualism , population , staffing , medical education , developmental psychology , medicine , nursing , sociology , paleontology , environmental health , neuroscience , anthropology , biology
The findings are presented here of a questionnaire survey which asked speech and language therapy managers in England about the caseloads of the therapists in their trust as regards bilingual children. The survey was the first part of a larger research project aiming to explore why there appears to be overrepresentation of bilingual children in speech and language therapy in some areas and under‐representation in others (compared to the proportion of bilingual children in the population). This main research question is discussed in relation to the literature and to the survey aims. The results describe aspects of the context in which the speech and language therapy service for bilingual children is operating: the lack of information about bilingual children is highlighted. The staffing and training implications of bilingual clients' distribution over therapists' caseloads in areas with different levels of minority ethnic population are also considered. The finding that the majority of speech and language therapists in England who work with children (59%) see at least one bilingual child speaks of the extent to which issues relating to bilingualism affects therapists.