Resources in 131 languages and dialects about children’s speech development, assessment, and intervention

Background: Children around the world learn to communicate using the languages in their environment, learning to speak or sign one or more of 7,000 languages. However, when children do not communicate in the dominant language of their country of residence, most speech-language pathologists (SLPs) report that they rarely provide support in children’s home language(s), due to the lack of assessment and intervention resources about multilingual children’s speech.

Aim: This presentation challenges communication professionals’ long-held belief that there are few assessment and intervention resources for supporting multilingual children’s speech by describing the resources curated on the free Multilingual Children’s Speech website.

Method/approach: Over two decades, multilingual researchers, professionals, and translators have collaborated to provide access to global knowledge about children’s speech development, assessment, and intervention. The resulting collaborations have been curated within the Multilingual Children’s Speech website https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home that was launched in 2012 and extensively updated in 2024.

Results/findings: The Multilingual Children’s Speech website includes 1,337 mostly-free resources in 131 languages and dialects, including 16 of the top 20 most spoken languages in the world, as well as many minority and Indigenous languages. There are 658 speech acquisition studies in 55 languages, 423 speech assessment resources in 77 languages, and 178 speech intervention resources in 21 languages. The resources include journal articles, books, book chapters, theses, and video presentations by global researchers. There is also information about how to work with children who speak a language you do not speak.

Conclusion: The children’s speech acquisition, assessment, and intervention resources curated on the Multilingual Children’s Speech website should prove useful to professionals, including SLPs, teachers, and linguists who support multilingual children’s communication across the world. These resources also highlight the benefits of multilingualism and international collaborations in building diverse interdisciplinary knowledge.

Implications for children and families: You may find resources in your own language on the website, such as a validated parent-report questionnaire freely available in 71 languages and videos about speech development in 48 languages. These resources can support your child’s communication in any language they speak.

Implications for practitioners: You don’t have to be multilingual yourself to work with multilingual children in their home language(s). You can access speech acquisition, assessment, and intervention resources on the Multilingual Children’s Speech website to support you in providing culturally responsive practice.

Keywords: children’s speech development, multilingualism, speech acquisition, assessment, intervention

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
• SDG 4: Quality Education
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequality
• SDG 17: Partnerships to Achieve the Goals