Perspectives on Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations

Coordinator's Column

Harris, J. L. — 2013-04-16T09:00:23-07:00

Bilingual Myth-Busters Series: Language Confusion in Bilingual Children

Guiberson, M. — 2013-04-16T09:00:23-07:00

This article is the first in a series that will attempt to deconstruct myths about bilingualism. Language confusion is the popularly held belief (or myth) that children are incapable of becoming bilingual without experiencing confusion. The purpose of this article is to provide an integrative review of relevant research that sheds light on the existence of language confusion. To better understand bilingual language development, the author describes theoretical frameworks of bilingualism. Next, the article provides a cursory review of research that is relevant to the concept of language confusion. Topics include infant processing skills, bilingual toddlers' ability to separate and use languages, code-mixing, bilinguals' cross-linguistic transfer abilities, and bilingualism in disordered populations. In conclusion, this integrative literature review revealed no evidence to support the existence of language confusion in bilingual children. Finally, the author highlights several research findings and summarizing points that may help providers in future conversations with families and colleagues when planning assessment, intervention, and programming for children from linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Bilingual Myth-Busters Series: When Young Children who Stutter are Also Bilingual: Some Thoughts About Assessment and Treatment

Shenker, R. C. — 2013-04-16T09:00:23-07:00

The author was invited to write this article as part of ASHA Special Interest Group 14's Perspectives of Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Populations Bilingual Myth-Busters Series. The increase in children raised as bilingual has increased throughout North America and worldwide. In spite of this, procedures and protocols for assessment and treatment of bilingual children with speech and language concerns have not kept the same pace. When clinicians treat children who are bilingual and also stutter, they have few guidelines available. This article summarizes some of the information related to stuttering in bilingual young children with an emphasis on assessment and treatment. The author pays special attention to multicultural issues in bilingual children who stutter.

Production Accuracy of Six Spanish Speech Synthesis Voices for Single Nonsense Words

Wisenburn, B., Crawley, E. — 2013-04-16T09:00:23-07:00

There is a scarcity of research regarding individuals who are members of a linguistic minority and have a disability. A clear example of this is the lack of research of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for Spanish speakers, resulting in inadequate services for this population. Thus, as an initial step in filling this void, the study presented in this article evaluated the production accuracy of six Western Hemisphere–dialect Spanish speech synthesis voices from three different companies (AT&T, Cepstral, and Loquendo) used in speech-generating devices. Ten native Spanish speakers listened to and selected nonsense words containing a target phoneme from a six-item array displayed on a computer screen. Results showed that for the female voices, Cepstral had a significantly lower accuracy than the other two voices. For males, Loquendo had a significantly higher accuracy. The authors also provide production accuracy of individual phonemes. Conclusions from these data may help manufacturers to improve their systems and help give insight into a device's functional intelligibility for infrequently used words. Further research is needed to determine the functional intelligibility of these systems. The authors hope that this research encourages further study of issues related to AAC for speakers of a language that is not the majority language.