Developmental Language Disorder is the most common early childhood disorder and contributes to difficulties with receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language disorder. It is prevalent in 7-15 % of kindergarten children and it is not due to hearing impairment, autism, or intellectual disability. It affects five times more children than autism. DLD contributes to reading difficulties in 50-70 % of children. Additionally, approximately 20 % of children in the U.S. are bilingual and speak another native language including some Caribbean children. There are other children that are multilingual and speak three or more languages. This month, Building Successful Lives Speech & Language Services is continuing our celebration of Caribbean American Heritage and today’s interview feature for the Diversity, Equity, & Culture series will primarily focus on bilingual Jamaican children.
Dr. Karla Washington, Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program, has extensive experience with culturally and linguistically diverse children. As a licensed speech-language pathologist, professor and researcher, she is knowledgeable about developmental language disorder, Jamaican Creole/Patois, and the benefits of shared book reading. She has certification and licensure to practice speech/language pathology in the United States, Canada, and Jamaica. She focuses her research on typical and disordered speech-and-language development in monolingual and bilingual contexts. Dr. Washington is active in National Institute of Health (NIH) sponsored research investigating Jamaican children’s speech productions. She is the Director of the Pediatric Language, Literacy, & Speech (PedLLS) Outcomes Lab. She is an Editor for the journal Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools and is a member of the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech.
During a June interview, she shares information about the linguistic characteristics of Jamaican Creole and bilingual children who speak Jamaican Creole and English. She discusses research projects pertaining to bilingual children with developmental language disorder and the use of shared book reading. Additionally, Dr. Washington shares information about the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health for Children and Youth (ICF-CY) and how it relates to research in communication sciences. Additionally, you will learn about a study abroad program organized by Dr. Washington to Jamaica for university students in the Communication Sciences & Disorders program. She shares the benefits for students participating in this program. During this interview, speech-language pathologists will learn practical tips that monolingual and multilingual SLPs can implement to distinguish developmental language disorder vs. linguistic difference here in the United States. SLPs will learn significant considerations that they should remember and implement to ensure that they are providing culturally responsive assessment and therapeutic services.
Resources Compiled by Dr. Karla Washington:
Application of ICF in Multilingual Contexts-
Westby, C., & Washington, K. N. (2017). Using the international classification of functioning,
disability and health in assessment and intervention of school-aged children with
language impairments. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 48(3), 137-152.
https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_LSHSS-16-0037
Wright, R., Washington, K. N., Crowe, K., Jenkins, A., León, M.,, Kokotek, L., Raisor Becker, L., &
Westby, C. (2019). Current methods of evaluating the language abilities of multilingual pre-schoolers: A scoping review using the ICF-CY. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 50, 434-451.
https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_lshss-18-0128
ASHA Resources:
ICF Overview and Functional Goals
https://www.asha.org/slp/icf/
Multilingual and Multicultural Constituency Groups:
Multicultural Constituency Groups
Special Interest Groups:
https://www.asha.org/sig/special-interest-group-descriptions/
https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/iepmcs
International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech+. (2012). Multilingual children with speech sound disorders: Position paper. Bathurst, NSW, Australia: Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE), Charles Sturt University. Retrieved from http://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/position-paper. ISBN 978-0-9874288-0-6. +
International Expert Panel is comprised of a group of equally contributing researchers who work with multilingual and multicultural children. Karla N Washington is an invited member of this group.
McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech+. (2017).
Tutorial: Speech assessment for multilingual children who do not speak the same language(s) as the speech-language pathologist. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 6(3), 691-708. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_AJSLP-15-0161
https://pubs.asha.org/pubs/rights_and_permissions
International Expert Panel is comprised of a group of equally contributing researchers who work with multilingual and multicultural children. Karla N Washington is an invited member of this group
Language Development and Disorder Publications (Jamaican Children):
Washington, K. N., Fritz, K., Crowe, K., Shaw, B*., & Wright, R*. (2019). Using Index of Productive Syntax to characterize bilingual preschoolers’ spontaneous productions: Considering Jamaican Creole and English. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 50(2), 179-195. https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2018_LSHSS-18-0072
Washington, K. N., Westby, C., Fritz., K., Crowe, K., Wright Karem, R.,* & Basinger, M*. (2021).
The narrative competence of bilingual Jamaican Creole- and English-speaking preschoolers. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 52, 317-334. https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2020_LSHSS-20-00013
Wright Karem, R., & Washington, K. N. (in press). The cultural and diagnostic appropriateness of standardized assessments for dual language learners: A Focus on Jamaican preschoolers. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.
https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-20-00106
Dr. Karla Washington – University of Cincinnati https://researchdirectory.uc.edu/p/washink2
Featured by:
Tamara Anderson, M.S., Ed.S., CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologist
Education Specialist & Consultant
Diversity & Equity Advocate
