Speech and Language Therapy Service for Multilingual Children: Attitudes and Approaches across Four European Countries

Theresa Bloder, Maren Eikerling, Tanja Rinker and Maria Luisa Lorusso
Additional contact information
Theresa Bloder: Faculty of Languages and Literatures, Universitätsallee 1, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 85072 Eichstätt, Germany
Maren Eikerling: Scientific Institute IRCCS E. Medea, 23842 Bosisio Parini, Italy
Tanja Rinker: Faculty of Languages and Literatures, Universitätsallee 1, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 85072 Eichstätt, Germany
Maria Luisa Lorusso: Scientific Institute IRCCS E. Medea, 23842 Bosisio Parini, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-32

Abstract: Educational equality and the reduction of discrimination are among the UN’s Sustainability Goals. Previous studies as well as policy recommendations suggest that the extent to which these are implemented in the field of speech and language therapy for multilingual children depends on sufficient knowledge and material. To this end, an online survey was carried out with 300 Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) from Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, investigating their attitudes and approaches regarding the service provision for multilingual children. Their responses were analyzed taking the SLTs’ language background, experience, and country of origin into account. Results were interpreted in the context of country-specific SLT service-related policies and SLT training as well as migration history. There seems to be a gap between the SLTs’ knowledge about the specific requirements for providing Speech Language Therapy (SLT) for multilingual children and their common practice, which—despite the continuous need of further training—points to sufficient awareness but a lack of materials or resources. We found experience in working with multilingual children to be the most influential factor on attitudes and approaches towards multilingualism. This suggests the importance of improving pre-exam and early-career professional experience to foster SLTs’ development of mindful attitudes and appropriate approaches towards multilingualism in their clinical practice.

Keywords: multilingualism; developmental language disorder; speech and language therapy; sustainability; professional experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12143/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12143/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:12143-:d:671392

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().