Abstract
BackgroundSouth African speech-language therapists (SLTs) currently do not reflect the country's linguistic and cultural diversity. The question arises as to who might be better equipped currently to provide services to multilingual populations: SLTs with more clinical experience in such contexts, or recently trained SLTs who are themselves linguistically and culturally diverse and whose training programmes deliberately focused on multilingualism and multiculturalism?AimsTo investigate whether length of clinical experience influenced: number of bilingual children treated, languages spoken by these children, languages in which assessment and remediation can be offered, assessment instrument(s) favoured, and languages in which therapy material is required.MethodFrom questionnaires completed by 243 Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA)-registered SLTs who treat children with language problems, two groups were drawn: 71 more experienced (ME) respondents (20+ years of experience) and 79 less experienced (LE) respondents (maximum 5 years of experience).ResultsThe groups did not differ significantly with regard to (1) number of children (monolingual or bilingual) with language difficulties seen, (2) number of respondents seeing child clients who have Afrikaans or an African language as home language, (3) number of respondents who can offer intervention in Afrikaans or English and (4) number of respondents who reported needing therapy material in Afrikaans or English. However, significantly more ME than LE respondents reported seeing first language child speakers of English, whereas significantly more LE than ME respondents could provide services, and required therapy material, in African languages.ConclusionMore LE than ME SLTs could offer remediation in an African language, but there were few other significant differences between the two groups. There is still an absence of appropriate assessment and remediation material for Afrikaans and African languages, but the increased number of African language speakers entering the profession may contribute to better service delivery to the diverse South African population.
Highlights
South African Speech-Language Therapists (SLTs) working in the context of cultural and linguistic diversity face immense challenges in their efforts to provide equitable services to all of their clients (Barratt, Khoza-Shangase & Msimang, 2012)
The research question posed in this study was whether SLTs with more years of clinical service are better equipped than SLTs with fewer years of service to deal with the multilingual and multicultural South African population
There was widespread use of British and American assessment instruments. This included widespread use of Afrikaans translations of these instruments, despite the problems associated with the use of translated instruments, especially those that have not been renormed. These findings indicate a need for linguistically and culturally appropriate child language assessment instruments in Afrikaans, South African English, and the African languages spoken in South Africa
Summary
South African Speech-Language Therapists (SLTs) working in the context of cultural and linguistic diversity face immense challenges in their efforts to provide equitable services to all of their clients (Barratt, Khoza-Shangase & Msimang, 2012). This is in part because the political policies and practices of the past have affected the profession of Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology in a negative manner. Economic conditions in South Africa have led to disparity between different ethnic groups These factors have contributed to a corps of predominantly white SLTs who do not necessarily have in-depth knowledge of the cultural practices of the majority of the country’s residents. The question arises as to who might be better equipped currently to provide services to multilingual populations: SLTs with more clinical experience in such contexts, or recently trained SLTs who are themselves linguistically and culturally diverse and whose training programmes deliberately focused on multilingualism and multiculturalism?
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