Service Delivery to Bilingual Mandarin and English Children: The Role of Speech-Language Pathologists and Parents

The role of Mandarin and English is becoming more prominent in the United States. A common misconception about raising bilingual children is that they are at greater risk for delayed, incomplete, or impaired language development. However, there are several advantages to being bilingual, including personal and family, cognitive, academic, and professional benefits. While bilingualism has its benefits, bilingual children display differences in language acquisition, which may prompt teachers and parents to refer for speech and language services. As a result, disproportionality is a concern among culturally and linguistically diverse students, who are mislabeled as needing special education services at higher rates than white peers. Given the reciprocal relationship of a growing bilingual Mandarin and English population and the need to avert disproportionality among culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education, the following professional product development delineates the role of speech-language pathologists and parents while providing evidence-based resources. The resources were provided to speech-language pathologists and parents along with feedback forms to discuss its utility and implications for future research.