Criteria Used by Monolingual SLPs When Referring Bilingual Students

Thursday, 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Seabright
Poster 2
The purpose of this study was to collect information about the criteria utilized by monolingual English-speaking speech language pathologists (SLPs) when referring bilingual students for a speech-language evaluation. This study sought to identify the barriers and facilitators that these clinicians experience during the referral process. A non-experimental study was conducted through an online Qualtrics survey sent via email to members of the New Jersey Speech-Language Specialists (SLSs). Results indicate that participants refer students to bilingual clinicians or assess them with a bilingual individual to ensure appropriate provision of services. The reduced amount of bilingual clinicians to assess students was considered as a significant barrier. Having more access to bilingual clinicians was considered as a significant facilitator. Based on this study, increase in training about dialectal differences and assessment protocols when assessing bilingual students might be a suitable strategy to ensure high-quality services in this field.
Track: 
Adult