INTRODUCTION

ASHA has established the Office for Multicultural Affairs (OMA), the Multicultural Issues Board, and Special Interest Division 14: Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Populations, to focus on CLD issues for the practitioner. ASHA reminds us that it is ‘incumbent upon members to develop cultural competence..to develop skills for working with all clients, regardless of cultural or linguistic background’.

These guidelines are therefore designed to support the continuing development of cultural competence for the Speech Language Pathologist (SLP). Specifically, these guidelines will focus on issues related to cultural and linguistic diversity of the English Language Learner (ELL) student, and the impact those issues have on the practice of Speech/Language Pathology. What are our roles and responsibilities in working with ELLs? What do we need to know about ELLs? What do we need to know about bilingualism? We will provide resources and tools to address these and many other questions.