Multilingualism and the Child African Diaspora

This is the first issue in an installment of three issues focused on African American Englishes and Creole languages. Collectively, the issues showcase how these language families are perceived by adults and how they are understood and produced by children in the Americas and in the Caribbean. Drs. Karla N. Washington (Issue 2), Monique Mills (Issue 3), and Julie Washington (Issue 4) have served as guest editors. In this first issue, where I am the guest editor, multilingualism and the Child African Diaspora are discussed.

Millions of children in the United States and across the world grow up learning two or more languages and dialects (Ebert & Reilly, 2022; Hyter & Salas-Provance, 2021). This linguistic diversity signals that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have a high potential for contact with multilingual children. This increased potential highlights the pressing need for evidence-informed, innovative, and culturally relevant ideas that inform SLPs' clinical and research practices, particularly with children who speak languages and dialects within the child African diaspora. From my perspective, this pressing need has its genesis across three factors: (1) a cultural and linguistic mismatch between SLPs and their clientele, with only 8% of SLPs self-identifying as multilingual service providers and ∼4% as Black SLPs (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], 2024); (2) a lack of understanding of the languages and dialects within the child African diaspora; and (3) the availability of tools that make possible culturally responsive practices within this population speakers.

Undoubtedly, SLPs are advocates of the human right to communicate and often seek ways to ensure that that advocacy is upheld (Farrugia-Bernard, 2018; Washington et al., 2023). In acknowledgment of this advocacy, recent publications have articulated key necessities in speech-language pathology practices. These include practitioners' and researchers' adoption of diagnostic and intervention practices that do not propagate hegemonic practices in the identification of disorder, in distinguishing difference from disorder, and in the implementation of therapies designed to support communicative function (Taliancich-Klinger et al., 2022; Fabiano-Smith et al., 2021; Nair et al., 2023). With the monolingual White mainstream demography being upheld as a standard despite an increasingly diverse linguistic landscape in the United States, calls for addressing the integrity of diagnostic and intervention practices have grown (Brea-Spahn & Bauler, 2023; Easton & Verdon, 2021; Nair et al., 2023). These calls serve to reduce the inaccuracies associated with documenting speech and language function in children demonstrating variation in their language use, as is the case for speakers of African American English and Creole languages in the United States.

There is a large body of published works that have addressed speech-language development and disorders in majority language pairings (such as Spanish-English) to abate the aforementioned concerns and potential for misdiagnosis. By contrast, for speakers of African American English and Creole languages, there is a shortage of information for supporting culturally responsive practices in SLPs' daily clinical activities. As defined, culturally responsive practices do not assume a separation of the individual's communication patterns from potential social and cultural environment influences (De Lamo White & Jin, 2011). Consequently, the child in the context of their environment must be given due consideration in diagnostic and intervention processes (cf. International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech, 2012; McLeod et al., 2017; Washington et al., 2025). Furthermore, the inclusion of insider perspectives is heralded to ensure that fundamental understandings of specific speech and language patterns within a linguistic community are provided to reframe theoretical bases and clinical interpretations (Garivaldo & Fabiano-Smith, 2023). Culturally responsive practice, therefore, recognizes that a one-size-fits-all solution does not exist (Washington, 2025) and there is an acknowledgment that as SLPs there are topics we do and do not know well (Hyter & Salas-Provance, 2021; Washington et al., 2025). This orientation in our thinking echoes Confucius's sentiments: “true wisdom is knowing what we do not know.”

This clinical forum is intended to support SLPs' culturally responsive practices. Researchers with expertise and insider perspectives related to multilingualism and the child African diaspora share their insights for speech-language pathology with the intent of supporting children who speak minority languages such as Creoles (e.g., Gullah/Geechee, Caribbean Creole) and dialects of American Englishes (e.g., African American English) in the United States. In the first article of the forum, I provide some historical context foundational to the need for distinguishing dialect and disorder with practical considerations offered. This article makes clear the significant increase in research on multilingualism globally and nationally with the goal of moving the profession beyond monolithic assumptions and in proffering the human right to communicate in the languages spoken by these children.

In the second article, Bazzocchi and colleagues apply arts-based methods and children's ratings alongside language sample analysis to understand bilingual Jamaican Creole and English-speaking children's communication experiences. These experiences are explored in a research-based article across typical and disordered (i.e., developmental language disorder) profiles to capture unique perspectives in diverse groups of preschoolers. The United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child offers a motivating framework for situating tools useful in amplifying Jamaican children's voices across both of their spoken languages. The goal is a holistic framing of speech-language development that moves beyond test scores to characterize multilingual profiles.

As part of a review paper in the third article, Berry describes the Gullah Geechee language as a bilingual Creole through an exploration of its historical roots, linguistic features, and sociological significance. Berry advocates for validating heritage language use with a movement away from historical stigmatization and marginalization and toward the resurgence of a cultural identity that could be fostered through culturally responsive teaching and education. Broad analyses of Gullah Geechee, examination of existing educational frameworks, and recognition of the influences of societal attitudes are offered to foster an appreciation of this African American Creole as a valid linguistic system.

Using the principles of translanguaging, Jocelyn and Telford Rose introduce the Translanguaging Speech-Language Intervention (TSI) Framework within a tutorial article in this fourth contribution within Issue 2. The TSI is intended to guide clinical interventions in speech, language, and hearing for Caribbean Creole-speaking children, though broader applications to other children are mentioned. In their tutorial, they explore how the TSI fosters a strengths-based approach for diagnostic and therapeutic offerings that places multilingualism at the center of these efforts. By consequence, there is an encouragement of language maintenance, linguistic justice, and family support. Benefits and practical implications for incorporating the TSI Framework into daily practices are also offered.

In the fifth and final article, Middleton offers a discussion regarding the academic and social implications of the cultural and linguistic mismatch between the majority White speech-language profession and their Black clientele. Of note is the disproportionate representation of these clients in special education, which is highlighted as being an unintended consequence of this mismatch. Middleton offers a solution in the form of cultural competence, cultural humility, and cultural sensitivity as requisite components of being a culturally responsive SLP.

Serving children within the Child African Diaspora necessitates specific knowledge, skills, and tools. I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading this forum while also gaining new insights regarding theoretical bases, educational disparities, and innovative and culturally responsive clinical practices. Strengths and specific challenges exist within this group of children, and I hope that you feel better equipped to continue your growth in this area.

Publication History

Article published online:
27 June 2025

• References

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