Worldwide Speech-Language Pathology Practice: Stuttering and Multilingualism

There is no current consensus as to standard speech-language pathology (SLP) practice concerning the assessment and treatment of multilingual people who stutter. Terms used to describe stuttering and multilingualism vary across the literature, thus making it difficult to describe the population of multilingual people who stutter. This study aimed to collect information from speech-language pathologists (SLPs) across the world on their clinical experience evaluating and treating multilingual people who stutter and the different linguistic profiles (simultaneous, sequential, balanced, and unbalanced) of these clients. SLPs who had worked with multilingual people who stutter in the past two years were recruited through electronic invitations sent by email, through professional contacts, and posted on discussion groups/blogs to participate in an online survey. The electronic survey consisting of 45 questions was created through the University of Maine’s Qualtrics survey system. A total of 154 participants began the online survey with 74 SLPs completing some portion of it. SLPs were categorized by region (North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia). Descriptive statistics were calculated for each survey question according to region and separated into demographic, profile, assessment and treatment sections. SLPs in all regions worked with a higher frequency of multilingual males who stutter and multilingual children who stutter. Differences and similarities were found within regions and across regions concerning the profiles of multilingual clients who stutter and SLP practices of assessment and treatment. Findings are discussed with respect to the relative contribution made toward more specific descriptions of multilingual people who stutter and types of worldwide SLP practices used for the assessment and treatment of multilingual people who stutter