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Purpose: Although the 5 studies presented within this clinical forum include children who differ widely in locality, language learning profile, and age, all were motivated by a desire to improve the accuracy at which developmental language disorder is identified within linguistically diverse schools. The purpose of this prologue is to introduce the readers to a conceptual framework that unites the studies while also highlighting the approaches and methods each research team is pursuing to improve assessment outcomes within their respective linguistically diverse community.
Method: A disorder within diversity framework is presented to replace previous difference vs. disorder approaches. Then, the 5 studies within the forum are reviewed by clinical question, type of tool(s), and analytical approach.
Conclusion: Across studies of different linguistically diverse groups, research teams are seeking answers to similar questions about child language screening and diagnostic practices, using similar analytical approaches to answer their questions, and finding promising results with tools focused on morphosyntax. More studies that are modeled after or designed to extend those in this forum are needed to improve the accuracy at which developmental language disorder is identified.
A language difference due to a child's status as a nonmainstream English dialect speaker or a bilingual English language learner (ELL) does not constitute a language disorder. All speech-language pathologists should know this. Linguistic differences have been distinguished from language disorders in multiple position statements by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA, n.d., 1983), numerous papers have been written about the clinical error that occurs when differences are interpreted as disorders (e.g., Paradis, 2016; Stockman, 2010), and knowledge about the difference vs. disorder construct is routinely tested on the Praxis (Educational Testing Service, 2015) and required by ASHA for national certification (Council for Clinical Certification in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2013).
Recently, for nonmainstream dialects, Oetting, Gregory, and Riviere (2016) advocated for the difference vs. disorder1 construct to be reframed as disorder within difference. They argued that the change is needed to help clinicians steer conversations with others toward the identification and treatment of children who present a language disorder that manifests within the context of their dialect.
As shown in Figure 1a and 1b, these authors also suggested a single-box, disorder within difference model (as compared...