Kentucky Speech-Language Pathologists' Confidence And Education In Providing Services To Spanish-English Bilingual Children In The Public Schools

<p>The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has mandated that all speech-language pathologists (SLPs) competently assess and serve children from diverse cultural backgrounds (ASHA, 2010). In Kentucky, there has been a 121% increase in the Hispanic population in the last ten years (O'Neill, 2011). As the population of Kentucky becomes more diverse, it is essential that SLPs have cultural competence and confidence in serving clients with culturally-linguistically diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this study was to compare the amount of multicultural pre- service training and continuing education Kentucky SLPs have received to the amount received by the SLPs surveyed in the larger studies by Hammer, Detwiler, Detwiler, Blood, and Qualls (2004) and Roseberry-McKibbin, Brice, and O'Hanlon (2005). Ninety SLPs employed by public schools in Kentucky were selected using a stratified random sample with proportional allocations. Forty-six SLPs responded to a questionnaire that examined their competence and confidence serving Spanish-English bilingual students. Questionnaire items were selected from previous research studies by Hammer et al. (2004) and Roseberry-McKibbin et al. (2005). Results from this study suggested more pre-service training and continuing education are warranted when serving Spanish- English bilingual students. Additional research was suggested to determine the manner in which pre-service training should be provided and what competencies should be addressed. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Special Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Eastern Kentucky University

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Cooley, Leah Katherine

• Competence
• Confidence
• Culturally Linguistically Diverse
• English Language Learners
• Multicultural
• Spanish-English
• Special Education and Teaching

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2012 Leah Katherine Cooley

Repository record dc:identifier

https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/77

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:encompass.eku.edu:etd-1076